Solar for restaurants and bakeries in South Africa: what it saves in 2026

Answer first: Food businesses are some of the best solar customers in South Africa. They run refrigeration 24 hours a day, cook and wash through daylight hours, and pay business tariffs that rose faster than household rates this year. The money is in using solar while the kitchen is working — not in exporting it. Related: solar for shops · spaza fridge savings · Section 12B · commercial solar desk.

Where a kitchen’s kWh actually go

Power Knot’s ranking of commercial kitchen equipment puts electric ovens at about 40–100 kWh a day, electric stoves at 30–80 kWh, deep fryers and commercial dishwashers at 20–50 kWh each, walk-in coolers and freezers at 15–40 kWh, and coffee machines at 5–12 kWh (Power Knot commercial kitchen energy ranking (April 2025)). A small bakery with one deck oven at about 60 kWh a day over 26 trading days, a walk-in cooler at about 25 kWh a day, and display fridges, mixers, lights and POS at about 7 kWh a day lands near 2 500 kWh a month. That is the worked example below.

Two load types matter for solar design: the constant base (refrigeration, extraction, lights) that runs whether you are busy or not, and the spikes (ovens firing, compressors starting, an espresso machine heating) that size the inverter. SolarGuide’s restaurant guide makes the same point and recommends giving the installer 12 months of bills plus half-hourly data where the municipality supplies it (SolarGuide, Solar for restaurants and coffee shops (17 April 2026)).

What 2 500 kWh costs on 2026/27 business tariffs

Sources: NERSA Reasons for Decision, City of Tshwane tariffs FY2026/27; City of Cape Town 2026/27 Annexure 6 tariff book; NERSA Reasons for Decision, eThekwini tariffs FY2026/27. Tshwane’s small commercial energy rate jumped 26.22% this year while its basic charge was halved, so the same bakery paid about R9 882 excl. last year — an 11.8% increase for this load. In Cape Town the two Small Power User tariffs cross at about 1 420 kWh a month; above that, SPU1’s high fixed charge and low energy rate is cheaper. The City allocates the category under section 4.2 of its Electricity Tariff Policy, so confirm which one is on your account before modelling solar.

What a 15 kWp array saves

PVGIS models a north-facing 25° array at about 1 730 kWh per kWp a year in Pretoria, 1 679 in Cape Town and 1 466 in Durban (EU JRC PVGIS v5.2 (1 kWp, 25° north-facing, 14% system loss; run 27 Oct 2026)). A 15 kWp roof therefore makes about 2 160, 2 100 and 1 830 kWh in an average month. A kitchen that bakes or preps through the day and runs cold rooms around the clock uses most of it on site:

• Tshwane: 1 400 kWh self-used × 401.80 c = ≈R5 625 a month excl. VAT (≈R67 500 a year).
• Cape Town SPU1: 1 400 kWh × 294.06 c excl. = ≈R4 117 a month excl. On SPU2 the same kWh are worth 568.24 c excl. — about R7 955 a month — the strongest small-business solar case in the country.
• eThekwini Scale 1: 1 300 kWh × 403.65 c = ≈R5 247 a month excl.

Cape Town output halves in June (about 84 kWh per kWp against 183 in January), so winter savings there run near half of summer’s. Size on the annual figure, and expect the swing.

Payback for a food business

FlowLeads lists 15 kW installed systems at R192 000–R245 000 without battery (FlowLeads solar cost guide 2026); a VAT-registered business claims the input VAT, so the net cost is about R167 000–R213 000. At Tshwane’s ≈R67 500 a year, payback is about 2.5–3.2 years; at Cape Town SPU1’s ≈R49 400 a year, about 3.4–4.3 years. Section 12B then allows a 100% deduction in the first year for PV up to 1 MW. At the 27% company tax rate that is worth about R45 000–R57 500 on this system and pulls payback under two and a half years in Tshwane — how 12B works.

Bakeries and restaurants need different designs

• Bakeries fire ovens before dawn. Move proofing, second bakes, confectionery and washing into 08:00–15:00 where you can, and let solar carry the cold room and display fridges. Early-morning bakes run on grid or battery.
• Restaurants earn their money at dinner. Solar covers prep, cold rooms and lunch; a battery carries refrigeration, POS, lights and extraction through the evening and through outages. Full electric dinner-service cooking on battery is expensive — gas or a scheduled generator handles the rare deep outage more cheaply, as SolarGuide also advises (SolarGuide, Solar for restaurants and coffee shops (17 April 2026)).
• Coffee shops are daytime businesses and match solar almost perfectly; size the inverter for the espresso boiler and grinder spikes.

Battery: size for the cold chain first

The kWh you cannot lose in a kitchen is the cold chain. Add up the cold room, freezers and display fridges overnight, add POS, Wi-Fi and lights, and size usable battery kWh to that number with a reserve. A 16 kWh LiFePO₄ pack on a 48 V DC bus is the building block; two in parallel give about 26–29 kWh usable for a busy restaurant. 48 V DC is the oldest, most proven hybrid architecture, and installers say Solar MD packs outlive their warranty — the kind of longevity a battery that cycles every trading day needs. Freedom Won and BlueNova are the other locally supported names worth quoting side by side — battery guide · battery sizing.

Buy it like a business asset

1. Insist on an open, locally supported kit. Victron GX-class monitoring with open battery choice lets you commission offline and swap parts locally — open vs closed hybrids.
2. Ask where the kit is wholesaled. Installers who buy through ACDC Dynamics, Voltex, ARB or SONAH Group keep stock and warranty swaps in-country — trusted wholesalers.
3. Get your demand and tariff on the quote. If you are on a TOU or demand tariff, the battery’s job changes — demand charges.
4. Register with the municipality. Commercial SSEG approval is part of the job — commercial SSEG steps.

Bottom line

A 2 500 kWh-a-month bakery or restaurant saves about R4 100–R5 600 a month excl. VAT with a 15 kWp array used in daylight, and recovers the cost in roughly two and a half to four years — faster after Section 12B. Bake and wash in the sun, keep the cold chain on battery, and buy an open kit you can service locally.

Quick questions

How much electricity does a small bakery or restaurant use?

A single-site bakery or all-electric restaurant typically uses 1 500–3 000 kWh a month. Commercial electric ovens use about 40–100 kWh a day and walk-in coolers about 15–40 kWh a day, according to Power Knot’s equipment ranking.

Can solar run a commercial kitchen during load shedding?

Yes for the loads that keep you trading — refrigeration, POS, card machines, lights, Wi-Fi and extraction. Heavy electric ovens and fryers are cheaper to schedule into daylight or keep on gas than to back up fully with batteries.

What tariff do Cape Town restaurants pay in 2026/27?

Small Power User 2 pays R352.89 a month plus 653.48 c/kWh incl. VAT; Small Power User 1 pays R4 834.81 a month plus 338.17 c/kWh incl. VAT. At about 1 420 kWh a month the two cost the same.

Can a restaurant claim solar as a tax deduction?

Yes. Section 12B allows a 100% first-year deduction for solar PV up to 1 MW. At the 27% company rate that returns about 27c of every rand spent, which shortens payback by roughly a quarter.