Households
Typically 5 – 20 kWp
Put the rooftop system you already paid for to work a second time. A 10 kWp home system could earn around R2,700 a year.
For South African solar owners
Your solar already cuts carbon. Get paid for it.
Every unit of power your panels produce replaces coal-fired Eskom electricity. SunCred turns that into verified carbon credits, sells them, and pays you 60% of the income every year, in rand. We do all the admin.
Are you a solar installer? Partner with SunCred →≈ R270per kWp installed, per year, paid to you*
60%of all credit income goes to the system owner
5 kWp – 15 MWpsystems first producing on or after 1 January 2026
Open to solar owners across all nine provinces
- Gauteng
- Western Cape
- KwaZulu-Natal
- Eastern Cape
- Free State
- Limpopo
- Mpumalanga
- North West
- Northern Cape
How it works
A quick message and a simple onboarding, then the credits keep coming each year your system produces.
Send us a message
WhatsApp or call us and tell us a little about your solar system. We'll confirm whether it qualifies and what it could earn.
Onboarding
You send us your Certificate of Compliance, the installation invoices and read-only access to your inverter app or meter. We register your system in the grouped Verra solar project, set up data collection and handle the annual audit.
Credits are sold, you get paid
Verified credits are issued and sold to South African companies that use them to reduce the carbon tax they pay SARS. You receive 60% of the income.
What could your system earn?
Enter your system size. The other figures are set to South African defaults (local sunshine, the Eskom grid and local credit prices); open them to adjust.
kWp
Adjust the assumptions
R27,068estimated to you, per year
- Solar produced per year
- 14.6 MWh
- Carbon credits per year
- 15.0 credits
- Total credit value per year
- R4,511
- Your share per month (average)
- R226
Estimate only. One credit equals one tonne of CO₂e avoided. Actual income depends on your measured production, the verified emission factor, audit outcomes and the credit price when sold.
WhatsApp us to get startedMade for every kind of South African solar owner
If your system is 5 kWp or bigger and started producing in 2026, it can earn.
Farms and agriculture
Typically 30 kWp – 2 MWp
Pumping, cold rooms, packhouses and dairies run on big systems. Your farm's solar could earn tens of thousands of rand a year in credits.
Business and commercial
Typically 100 kWp – 15 MWp
Warehouses, factories and shopping centres with large roofs. A 1 MWp system could earn around R270,000 a year.
Schools, churches and community buildings
Typically 10 – 200 kWp
Extra income every year for the budget, from a system that's already on the roof.
Do you qualify?
- System size between 5 kWp and 15 MWp
- Installed, with first solar production on or after 1 January 2026
- Installed in South Africa, in any province
What we need from you
- Certificate of Compliance (CoC)
- Capex invoices for the installation
- Access to your inverter monitoring app or meter
Who gets what
The 40% covers everyone else involved: the project developer, the exchange, SunCred's administration and data collection, the independent auditors and Verra. There's no upfront cost and nothing extra comes off your 60%.
Why South African companies pay for your credits
South Africa's carbon tax, collected by SARS, lets large emitters reduce what they owe by buying approved carbon credits. Credits from solar projects registered with Verra qualify, which creates steady local demand.
R308
per tonne CO₂e from 1 January 2026
The headline carbon tax rate rose from R236, the biggest increase since the tax began in 2019.
≈ R462
per tonne indicated by 2030
Treasury's phase 2 plan has the rate climbing each year, which keeps companies looking for credits.
15%
maximum carbon offset allowance
From 2026 companies may use credits against up to 15% of combustion emissions and 10% of process emissions, up from 10% and 5%.
10–20%
Below the carbon tax. Carbon credits currently trade at a discount of roughly 10–20% to the carbon tax rate. That gap is why buyers want them: every credit a company uses saves it the full tax on a tonne, for less than the tax itself. As the tax rises each year, the value of credits is expected to rise with it.
Verra
The world's leading carbon credit standard. Your system joins a registered Verra grouped solar project (VCS project 4799), and every credit is independently audited.
Carbon Disclosures SA
The developer of the grouped solar project, responsible for the project design and its registration with Verra.
Green Asset Exchange
A South African marketplace for environmental assets, where the credits are sold to local buyers using them against their carbon tax.
Sources: National Treasury 2026 Budget as summarised by KPMG and Anthesis; Engineering News (Feb 2025); Green Asset Exchange public statements. Figures may change with future budgets.
Common questions
Does it cost me anything?
No. There's no upfront fee. All project, audit, registry and exchange costs come out of the 40% share, so your 60% is not reduced.
When do I get paid?
Credits are issued after each annual verification audit and then sold. Payments follow the sale, so the first payment comes after your first full monitoring period has been audited.
Am I locked in?
No. You can leave the programme on 61 days' notice. Credits from periods already submitted for audit are still paid out to you.
Will I lose control of my system or data?
No. We only need read-only access to your production data. Your system, your power and your savings stay exactly as they are.
Is the income taxable?
Yes, carbon credit income is generally taxable and may attract VAT if you're VAT registered. Please check with your accountant or tax adviser.
My system was installed before 2026. Can I still join?
Currently only systems with first solar production on or after 1 January 2026 qualify. Speak to us anyway; we'll tell you if anything changes.
For solar installers
Install solar? Earn from every system you refer.
Give your clients an extra income stream that makes your quote stand out, and earn a referral share on every system you bring to SunCred.
- Win more quotes with carbon income on top of savings
- Earn a referral share on every system
- SunCred handles all the admin and submissions
Let's check your system
Talk to us directly. Send a WhatsApp, give us a call, or fill in the form and it'll open in WhatsApp ready to send.
073 599 5165