Jua Renewables · Agriculture
Jua Renewables funds, builds, owns, insures and operates solar and battery systems on commercial farms and agro-processing sites. You contribute no capital and carry no performance risk. You buy the electricity the system makes, under a twenty-five year agreement, at a tariff below what you pay now — and one that rises more slowly than the utility's, every year, for the life of the contract.
The problem
The regulated electricity tariff rose 8.76% for customers supplied directly by Eskom in April 2026, and 9.01% for municipal customers in July. That is not an event. It is a trend that has run for fifteen years and has no published end.
Irrigation, refrigeration, packing, drying and processing are electrically intensive and cannot be deferred, substituted or hedged. There is no forward market for electricity as there is for fuel or fertiliser. The only real hedge is to contract for generation at a rate you fix yourself.
A Jua power purchase agreement escalates at 8%, stepping down to 6%. The utility escalates faster. The chart shows what that difference does over the life of a contract — the shaded area is the saving, and it widens every year.
Both series indexed to 1.0 in year one, so the comparison holds whatever tariff a given site pays today. Utility escalation held at the 8.76% approved by NERSA for Eskom direct customers from 1 April 2026. Jua escalation per the standard agreement: 8% per annum, stepping to 6%. Illustrative — actual future utility increases are set annually by the regulator.
The model
Jua Renewables is an Independent Power Producer, not an installer. We do not sell you equipment and hand over a warranty. We finance the asset, keep it on our balance sheet for twenty-five years, and carry every risk that comes with owning it.
We take twelve months of billing data and, where available, interval metering, and model your actual load against generation and storage. The output is a specific system size and a specific tariff for your site — not a generic quotation.
No cost · no obligationA short agreement grants Jua exclusivity for the development period and the mandate to deal with Eskom or your municipality on your behalf. It sets the commercial heads of terms — tariff, escalation, capacity charge and term — that become the power purchase agreement.
Twenty-week exclusivity periodWe prepare and submit the Small-Scale Embedded Generation application, handle grid compliance and protection requirements, complete the structural and electrical design, and ground-truth the site. This is where most self-funded projects fail; it is routine work for us.
Handled entirely by JuaBuilt under a fixed-price contract by our EPC partner using Tier 1 components, fully insured through construction, with performance security and liquidated damages behind the completion date.
Approximately ten weeks from signature to construction startJua owns, insures, monitors, maintains and replaces the system for the full term, and bills you monthly for the energy it delivers. At no point does the asset, or the risk of it underperforming, sit with you.
Commercial operation date onwardRisk allocation
Everything that can go wrong with the system is ours to fix.
This is the distinction between buying a solar installation and contracting for power. An owned system transfers a set of twenty-five year obligations onto a farming balance sheet. A power purchase agreement leaves them where they belong.
Carried by Jua and its funders. Nothing is drawn from your facilities, and nothing appears as capital expenditure on your accounts.
Carried by Jua. If the system generates less than modelled, that is our revenue shortfall, not your problem.
Carried by Jua for the full term — monitoring, cleaning, servicing, fault response and spares.
Carried by Jua. Construction all-risks, property damage and business interruption cover are in place throughout.
Carried by Jua. Inverter and battery replacement in the second decade is funded from a reserve, not from a call on you.
Carried by Jua. We hold the mandate, make the applications and answer to the utility.
The agreement
The commercial terms are standard across the programme, and they are set out here rather than kept behind a sales process.
| Term | Standard position |
|---|---|
| Term | Twenty-five years from the commercial operation date. |
| Energy tariff | Set at signature against your own load and current tariff — indicatively R1.41 to R1.45 per kWh, excluding VAT, and below your prevailing utility rate from day one. |
| Escalation | 8% per annum in the early years, stepping down to 6% per annum thereafter, on each anniversary of the commercial operation date. |
| Capacity charge | A fixed monthly charge for the battery system, which delivers capacity rather than energy and is priced accordingly. |
| Minimum offtake | An agreed annual volume you purchase or pay for. It is set below your assessed consumption, so it is a floor, not a stretch. |
| Capital contribution | Nil. Jua funds one hundred per cent of the system. |
| Land | A registered lease or servitude over the installation area for the contract term. No transfer of land, and no change to your title. |
| Surplus energy | Jua may sell surplus generation to the grid or to third parties, subject to regulatory approval. Your supply is served first. |
| Environmental attributes | Carbon credits arising from the system are retained by Jua unless separately agreed. |
| Confidentiality | Mutual, and POPIA-compliant. Your consumption data, financials and tariffs are not disclosed. |
Indicative standard terms. The tariff, capacity charge and minimum offtake for any given site are determined by the assessment in step 01 and are recorded in the agreement itself.
The system
Solar alone captures only the overlap between generation and load. Adding storage moves surplus midday generation into the evening and early-morning peaks, which is where agricultural tariffs are most punishing and where an interruption costs the most.
On a reference site of approximately 476 kWp, against annual consumption of 1 180 MWh. Yield is modelled site-specifically, not extrapolated.
Storage absorbs surplus generation and discharges it into peak periods, cutting demand charges and holding critical load through interruptions.
Direct solar meets about 57% of site consumption. With storage dispatching into evenings and peaks, total supply reaches 75% to 95%.
Configured for grid-tied operation with export and annual banking across Eskom's 1 April to 31 March cycle, where approved.
Figures are drawn from an executed proposal for a mid-sized wine and fruit production site. Every installation is sized to its own metered load; these are illustrative of the class, not a specification for your site.
Who it suits
The model works best where consumption is substantial, daytime-weighted, and tied to equipment that cannot simply be switched off.
Enquiries
Twelve months of billing data is enough for us to tell you whether this works on your site, and roughly what it would save you. There is no cost and no commitment to that assessment.