South Africa faces severe electricity shortages. Most
of the electricity generated is from coal, which
contributes to climate change. Additionally a large
amount of this power is lost through long distances of
aging transmission lines.
Water heating is a major consumer of electricity.
Solar Water Heaters (SWH) can alleviate these
problems but has a low penetration in South Africa.
Many water heaters installed annually in South Africa
are replacements of failed water heaters and most of
these are replaced via the insurance industry.
This paper makes an argument that the insurance
industry can exploit this opportunity to introduce
SWHs when a water heater must be replaced and help
to jump start the SHW uptake.