Red Energy Africa

Red Energy Africa Red Energy is a Commercial Solar System Design Company that pushes the boundaries of Alternative Energy. In 2008, Jakes Joubert founded Red Energy.
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Our mission: to ensure operational efficiency of the Southern African business sector. Access, escalating cost and reliability of the national electricity supply threatened economic growth. Red Energy took on the challenge to be a solution. If there was a way to ensure output exceeds input, we would find it, refine it and make it available to the business community. The first major breakthrough ca

me in 2008. We managed to do something which was not even considered possible at the time. We established a cost-effective way to convert an electric geyser to a solar geyser, without the need for a circulation pump. The innovation continued. In 2014, Red Energy designed and completed the first Photo Voltaic conversion on a geyser. Again, before anyone thought it was possible. We also launched the first Island Inverter. We also put together an inverter that allowed a single-phase pump to run on solar energy. All these are of course, still operational to this day. One of our most prized achievements was the launch of another new product. Our first Direct Current (DC) Solar Borehole Pump. This was no easy feat. It took about 6 months of intensive research and lab tests, followed by another 6 months of extensive field tests. In the end we produced a product ready to take on the global market. Yet again we managed to deliver a much-needed product when no one else could. Not only did we deliver then, but we maintain to be market leaders in these products to this day. We were not done yet. In 2017, we were part of the research and development on the famous OHM Hybrid Inverter. This was another product which reinforced our dream of ensuring business efficiency. We tested, fine-tuned and launched the OHM Hybrid Inverter in 2019. Today, it is still the most preferred and best-selling Inverter worldwide. We are also the only distributor in South Africa of the OHM Hybrid Inverter. We have not stopped pioneering the way since then. We will be launching three very exciting products this year, pushing the boundaries of innovation even further. Red Energy successfully and consistently manages to provide innovative products that deliver more, at lower cost. We manage and maintain this excellence through exceptional teamwork. Every valuable member of our team participates toward the same vision. We know we can, and do change the world, one connection at a time. Our sales team will ensure you receive the optimal energy solution for your every need. Our support team will ensure consistent performance to keep your business thriving. What we offer is no longer only a step ahead of the rest, we are way ahead, and moving fast. Team up with Red Energy. Can you risk to stay behind? Will you really wager the success of your business on an expensive, unreliable electricity supply and failing infrastructure? You don’t have to. We have established the financial viability of our products. We are saving customers a lot of money while maintaining business continuity. Take control and let Red Energy help your business progress. Switch to a Solar System designed to meet your specific needs. Connect with us now!

Solar proposals can look incredibly impressive. Glossy layouts, optimistic projections, and specifications that require ...
06/08/2026

Solar proposals can look incredibly impressive. Glossy layouts, optimistic projections, and specifications that require an engineering degree to interrogate properly.

Here is what to actually look for:

1. Does the payback period calculation show its workings? If it is just a number with no methodology, someone has made assumptions you have not agreed to.

2. Is the system sized for your actual peak demand or your average consumption? These are very different numbers. Getting them confused leads to systems that trip exactly when you need them most.

3. Who manufactured the batteries and what is the cycle life specification? LFP chemistry rated above 6,000 cycles is the benchmark for commercial use. Anything vague here is worth querying.

4. What is the monitoring arrangement post-commissioning? Is it something you check yourself occasionally, or does someone actively watch the data?

5. Is there a local warranty support structure named, with contact details and a claims process? Or is the warranty referenced to an offshore document?

6. Is the installation team named and employed in-house, or is it described as "our network of certified installers"?

7. Does the proposal include actual consumption data from your site, or generic South African irradiation averages?

A proposal that cannot answer all seven of those clearly is not ready to be signed. A company that cannot answer all seven clearly is not ready to be trusted.

Our proposals answer all 7.
Come see: redenergy.co.za

04/08/2026

Cold storage businesses have a very simple relationship with electricity. It is on, or it is not.
The temperature is maintained... or it is not.
The stock is fine... or it is not.

No amount of political goodwill, grid improvement, or press conference changes the physics of what happens to frozen goods when the power goes out at 2am.

We have installed backup solar systems for cold storage operations that now sleep through what used to be their most anxious hours. No generator monitoring or manual switching. AND, no 2am phone calls.

The Sigenergy system detects the outage and transitions automatically, usually before anyone has noticed the grid dropped.

That is the boring version of reliability. It is also the only version that actually counts. 🔋

redenergy.co.za

There is a difference between solving a problem and managing it indefinitely.Generators solve the immediate problem of n...
03/08/2026

There is a difference between solving a problem and managing it indefinitely.

Generators solve the immediate problem of no power
1. They do not solve the electricity cost problem
2. They do not solve the tariff increase problem
3. They do not solve the distribution infrastructure reliability problem.
They add diesel costs, maintenance costs, noise complaints, and a new category of operational anxiety called "did someone check the fuel today."

We installed solar for a motor workshop in Modimolle that had been running a generator through load shedding for two years. When we commissioned their system, the workshop manager's first comment was: "I did not realise how much mental energy the generator was taking up."

That is the quieter benefit nobody talks about. The cognitive load of managing a coping mechanism, indefinitely, quietly costs more than anyone accounts for.

There is a better way.👉 It runs silently. It has no fuel costs. It does not need a 6am check before the morning shift...

redenergy.co.za

Farmer's Weekly reported this month that electricity prices have now replaced load shedding as farming's biggest threat....
30/07/2026

Farmer's Weekly reported this month that electricity prices have now replaced load shedding as farming's biggest threat. Energy analyst Chris Yelland summed it up: "The problem is no longer electricity generation. The crisis has shifted to the affordability of electricity."

Here is what that looks like in real numbers: According to AgriSA, a typical 250kVA irrigated farming operation saw annual electricity costs rise from around R408,000 to R539,000 in a single season. That is a 32% increase -- driven not just by NERSA's 12.74% headline increase in April 2025, but by structural changes to Eskom's tariff that hit agricultural users disproportionately hard.

Electricity has become the second-largest input cost in sugar cane production after labour.
For fruit producers, the pressure on irrigation and cold-chain costs is building ahead of each summer export season.

The analysis from Yelland is particularly uncomfortable: when Eskom sells less electricity because prices are too high, they raise prices to recover the same revenue. That drives more customers to solar or off-grid alternatives, which reduces Eskom's sales further.... which requires more price increases. The utility death spiral is not a metaphor.

For agricultural operations, the case for commercial solar has rarely been clearer. Daytime peak loads on irrigation pumps and processing equipment align almost perfectly with solar generation. The ROI is compelling. The alternative is watching input costs rise indefinitely while competitors in other markets do not face the same headwind.

We work with farms. We have done for years.
We know what the engineering looks like at scale. If your electricity costs have become a strategic problem rather than just an operational one, that is the conversation we are built for.

redenergy.co.za

Eskom's own labour union called a proposed 7% electricity tariff increase "daylight robbery."We are choosing not to add ...
28/07/2026

Eskom's own labour union called a proposed 7% electricity tariff increase "daylight robbery."

We are choosing not to add a punchline.
The situation has provided its own. 😶

What we will say: when the people inside Eskom are using the phrase "robbery" to describe what the tariff is doing, businesses still entirely dependent on the grid might want to have a quiet word with themselves.

Solar does not solve every problem but it does mean a very large portion of your electricity bill stops being subject to whatever Eskom's unions and NERSA decide next April.

That portion... you control.

🔋Take back control of your energy costs. redenergy.co.za

Not all ghosts wear sheets. Some wear hi-vis vests, commission a system, and vanish into the Highveld sunset.Here is how...
26/07/2026

Not all ghosts wear sheets. Some wear hi-vis vests, commission a system, and vanish into the Highveld sunset.

Here is how to tell if yours has done exactly that:

1. You cannot remember the last time you saw a performance report. Your system is generating... something. Probably. You think.

2. Your support number goes to a general inbox. The auto-reply says "we will get back to you within 3-5 business days." That was six weeks ago.

3. The company website now redirects to a different brand name. Or LinkedIn shows the founder has pivoted to cryptocurrency.

4. Your electricity bill has been creeping back up for four months and nobody has called to investigate why.

5. You asked for the warranty documentation and were sent a PDF that appears to reference a European manufacturer with no South African presence.

We hear these stories more than we would like to, and we fix these situations more than we should have to.

After-sales service shouldn't be a 'department'. It is a choice a company makes about what kind of business it wants to be. We made that choice 16 years ago and we make it again every day.

PS: Still looking after clients we installed for in 2012. We're in for the long game: redenergy.co.za

South Africa's rooftop solar installations hit 7.3 GW by September 2025, according to Eskom's own data. That's a 23% yea...
23/07/2026

South Africa's rooftop solar installations hit 7.3 GW by September 2025, according to Eskom's own data. That's a 23% year-on-year increase and roughly equivalent to the combined peak electricity demand of Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.

Let that sit for a moment...

South African households and businesses privately financed enough generation capacity to theoretically power the three biggest cities in the country. Without government procurement, and a national plan. Mostly because Eskom made it financially unavoidable.

Adversity is one hell of an innovation driver.

Red Energy has been part of that shift since 2010 -- well before 7.3 GW was anything close to imaginable. Back then the question was "does solar even make commercial sense in South Africa?" Now, it is: "how do we squeeze more out of what we have?"

The market has changed but the fundamentals have not:
- Quality components
- Proper design
- Real after-sales support.

That was true at 0.1 GW and it is still true at 7.3 GW.

🌐We have been at this since before the solar boom: redenergy.co.za

Everyone celebrated when load shedding was declared over in April 2024. Press conferences + speeches and a general natio...
20/07/2026

Everyone celebrated when load shedding was declared over in April 2024. Press conferences + speeches and a general national relief.

Meanwhile in Soweto neighbourhoods like Dobsonville, Meadowlands, and Chiawelo, residents are still experiencing up to 12 hours of power cuts daily. University of Johannesburg sociology professor Luke Sinwell told eNCA recently that the "end of load shedding" had largely masked what is happening in lower-income areas.

Why? Widespread electricity theft leads to illegal connections, which overload local feeders, which forces Eskom to implement "load reduction" on those feeders. Not load shedding -- that would show up in the headlines, but load reduction.

At the same time, in Sandton, Midrand, and Bryanston, the professor noted, the grid has been 'stable'. As he pointed out with some irony: those are exactly the areas that can afford to go solar anyway.

The commercial and industrial businesses we work with are not in Dobsonville, but many operate in areas where distribution infrastructure is ageing, where a single feeder fault can take a full area offline for days, and where the official load shedding count means nothing when your machines are sitting idle.

Grid stability is not the same thing everywhere. Knowing what your specific exposure actually is -- that is worth understanding properly.

If you have not done a real energy risk assessment for your operation recently, it is a good time.
Let's talk: redenergy.co.za

Why we chose Sigenergy and what makes the SigenStor different in practice?We get asked about this regularly, so here is ...
16/07/2026

Why we chose Sigenergy and what makes the SigenStor different in practice?
We get asked about this regularly, so here is the straight version rather than a product pitch:

When we evaluate technology for commercial and industrial installations, the question is not whether it works in a lab. It is: will it perform reliably for 20 years in South African conditions including heat, dust, heavy daily cycling, and a client who needs it working every single day?

That filter removes most options.

Sigenergy's SigenStor is a 5-in-1 system:
- Hybrid inverter, solar conversion, battery storage, energy management, and AI-optimised dispatch in one architecture.
- The AI piece reads weather forecasts ahead of time and adjusts how the system stores and releases energy accordingly. That is a measurable operational advantage, not a gimmick.
- Battery chemistry is LFP, which stands for lithium iron phosphate. Most stable, most fire-safe, longest cycle life of any commercial chemistry available. Sigenergy rates their batteries at over 6,000 cycles. At one full cycle per day, that is 16+ years before you approach warranted degradation.
- Modular architecture means you can expand storage as your business grows without replacing the whole system.

Two consecutive Top Installer Awards for 2024 and 2025 means both parties are holding each other to a standard.
We take that seriously.

Chat to us: redenergy.co.za

6 questions to ask any solar company before you sign anything:(This list exists because we have seen what happens when p...
13/07/2026

6 questions to ask any solar company before you sign anything:
(This list exists because we have seen what happens when people do not ask)

1. Can I speak to clients whose systems have been running for three or more years?
Fresh installations look fine. Three-year-old systems tell you the truth about performance and support.

2. Who handles support after installation and how fast do they actually respond?
If the answer is vague, that is your answer.

3. Is your installation team in-house or subcontracted?
Subcontractors mean no continuity and nobody who owns the outcome long-term.

4. Do you visit your suppliers' factories or just order from a catalogue?
We have walked factory floors. Run 6 months' of lab tests. Done 6 months of field trials. That is different from ticking a spec sheet.

5. What does the warranty actually cover and who administers it locally?
Read this one twice. Some warranties exist on paper and nowhere else.

6. What happens to my support if your company restructures?
More relevant in this industry than most people expect.

Good companies do not flinch at these - we don't.

Check our project stories here: https://redenergy.co.za/projects/

Address

505 Robert Craib Street, Constantiapark
Pretoria
0181

Opening Hours

Monday 08:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 08:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 08:00 - 17:00
Thursday 08:00 - 17:00
Friday 08:00 - 14:00

Telephone

+27120041116

Website

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