In June 2026, Eskom’s rooftop solar estimates passed nine gigawatts, mainly because the Gauteng estimate increased for the first time since June 2025. You can see from the chart above that the provincial estimates are not updated every month or at the same time.

The fact that off-grid solar has soared in the province is a testament to how the people who live there are making a plan to keep things running, despite the collapsing municipal infrastructure.

So where is all this solar? According to a report from the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), entitled Powering Development. A Pathway to integrating rooftop solar PV into municipal electricity distribution, Gauteng had far more residential rooftop solar than any other province, as well as more commercial and industrial rooftop solar.

PARI argues that even though rooftop solar is installed to meet the needs of a household or business – not to feed into the grid – once those needs have been met and the batteries are full, the solar systems stop producing power. They could produce more power, but there’s nowhere for it to go. This ‘curtailed’ electricity is what could be fed into the municipal grid. And it’s cheaper than the electricity bought from Eskom. It’s a supply that municipalities could be tapping into, but aren’t.