Starting out as a two-man band in Port Louis, Mauritius, James Irons and David McDonald co-founded the company, then known as NVI Energy. With a vision to become the leading solar energy enabler, they celebrated their first small office in a town called Calebasses, where they welcomed their first staff member who still works for us today, Preeti Ragoobar. After the successful installation of Kenya’s first solar PPA, the company rebranded to SolarAfrica and launched their new logo and slogan The Better Energy Choice.

By early 2016, the team had grown to 13 staff members, moved to a new office in Mauritius and launched another office in Centurion, South Africa where our solar PPA solution was truly brought to life. After launching our residential solar solution for complexes and retirement homes, our vision of saving customers money with a Capex-free solar energy solution gained much acclaim. Charl Alheit soon joined the team as Chief Investment Officer, playing an instrumental role in fundraising fueling the company’s growth.

Winning a prestigious Frost & Sullivan Award in 2016, really set things in motion and propelled the team to wanting more. In 2017, SolarAfrica went on to deliver East Africa’s largest industrial solar system, Krystalline Salt Limited, and funded the largest battery system in Africa which also happened to be the first Tesla Power Pack installed in Africa.

We continued to grow year on year, from strength to strength, providing simple sustainable savings to our customers and by 2019, the team had delivered and financed over 80 projects across 5 different countries. The ambitious trend continued the following year where we signed and constructed one of the largest solar carports in the world for Ford Motor Company.

As we reach the ten year mark and celebrate ten great years of solar savings, the passion and pride for what we do still resonates among each and every team member. We’re gearing up to achieve even more over the next ten years but it would not be possible without our loyal customers, suppliers, partners and employees who have helped bring our vision to life. We thank everyone for walking this sustainable green energy journey with us and promise to remain your trusted partner in solar savings, technology and service for many years to come.