PV Solar Panels Purchase and Installation In Mauritius

Electricity is rather cheap here. And the initial cost of installation is very high and the average household will only get back there investment in 15 years or so. Plus the system may become obsolete in 15years if a new technology is introduced. For most people here it is not worth it. Maybe if you are a big company or an individual paying 8000rs per month for electricity it may worth it.

Rs 8000 is around 500 kWh in California.  Any idea how cheap electricity is in Mauritius?

@prospectorland I can recommend you to a good South African company based here in Mauritius.

OmniSol Ltd

Average home spends no more than 1000 r on electricity permonth. If you have air con expect about 2000 r per month. But when you connect make sure you choose normal household tariff - otherwise they charge you more.

Wow.  2000r per month would be wonderful.  I am paying at least 10x in California but this rate is to subsidize purchase of green generation.  How about the likelihood for power outages in Mauritius?  Do people buy generators or install battery backup to deal with those instances?  I remember that in the (really) old days, whenever there were outages, there would be protests near the CEB headquarters and power would be restored very quickly.  How do people handle those today?

After doing some more digging, I found the following CEB list of incentives for Solar PV -> https://ceb.mu/projects/energy-schemes. The scheme does not benefit residential customers but provides tax incentives and rebates for businesses.  Mauritius has also implemented net metering but the CEB buy back rate is only r3.50 per kWh.  The ROI for a residential customer would exceed the life of the panels.  I understand now why you will see panels on either a) businesses or b) homes in low income areas.  It's all explained in the CEB energy schemes documentation.

The investment is only worth if you buy directly from China, like I did , there was a factor of 3.5 cost difference between the Mauritian quotation and the Chinese imported goods, shipped and imported ( not installed) .

This is a 12 panels 5.5kw with LIPo batteries enough for a 4 bedroom house with some A/C on in summer, may be not all of them at the same time.

Count that you will have to change the batteries every 7 to 10 years, yes not so green either!

a factor of 3.5 cost difference between the Mauritian quotation and the Chinese imported goods, shipped and imported ( not installed) .
-@Cosmos Chile Team

Thank you for sharing info about your system.

4 part question about the price difference:

a) Is this difference mainly a Mauritian business mark up or is there an import duty on businesses that do not apply to owners?  I thought that China and Mauritius had a free trade deal.

b) Installation, permitting, and connection to the grid can be expensive - especially when considering the wind load installation rating during a cyclone. if the difference in cost (2.5 times more) is related to that part, I can understand that starting with a home built off-grid solution would be the cheapest.

c) The LiPo packs that you bought - are they the ones that are used in IT racks? Those tend to be the cheapest whereas the utility grade LiPo battery systems (more expensive) tend to allow 3600 up to 90% discharge cycles (i.e. approx. 10 year life).  Yes, I understand that battery disposal / recycling is still another can of worms to worry about later.

d) I thought that EV car owners (see the CEB schemes) can get a discount on the PV system installation.  Is this even worth considering in the cost?  I guess that this discount will not apply to an off-grid system.

Just to give you an idea of what I am working on is: 8.8kw panels + 13.5 kwhpower wall with install in grid at around 35k$. I have 2 Teslas and I can recycle the li-ion batteries in the power wall. Not sure if there is a comparable system in Mauritius. ROI 8 years

@prospectorland 8.8 kW panels and 2 powerwalls in Mauritius will probably take you off grid. However, with electricity prices quite low comparatively in Mauritius, it does not make sense yet. If you are geting an EV in Mauritius and planning to do a lot of driving around, it might make sense depending on future fuel price rises. Surprisingly, EVs do not have to pay the extra tax that other cars do, hence prices are comparable to the UK.

@Tookays Thank you and understood.  I am still trying to comprehend the Net zero carbon policy of the country.  Electricity is a key input to the progress of the country.

Hello, how did you import Tesla to Mauritius? I also want to transport my electric car in China to Mauritius for use.

Hello, I also want to transport my electric car in China to Mauritius for use, can you give me some guidance?

Hello, I also want to transport my electric car in China to Mauritius for use, can you give me some guidance?
-@Wu Xuping

Unless you are in Hong Kong, I don't think that you will want to transport your car to Mauritius. In Mauritius, the driving is on the left side of the road - not right - just like Hong Kong or Malaysia but not mainland China.

But just in case you decide to transport, then you can contact a shipping logistics company.  It is common to ship a car in a container.

Thank you for your reply. My car is in mainland China. My car is the left steering wheel. My logistics service provider can transport me and apply for an import license. However Whether the Authority can let me register on the card, I have previously went to the Land Administration Bureau to consult. At that time, a staff member responsible for the registration of the vehicle wrote a process for me, but because I could not speak English, I was not sure to receive my staff. Whether I fully understand what I mean and my vehicle.

However Whether the Authority can let me register on the card, I have previously went to the Land Administration Bureau to consult. At that time, a staff member responsible for the registration of the vehicle wrote a process for me, but because I could not speak English, I was not sure to receive my staff. Whether I fully understand what I mean and my vehicle.
-@Wu Xuping

I would recommend you to read the expat.com guide - this can be downloaded from this site.  I believe that there are some tax exemptions if you qualify i.e. if you are moving or something like that.  Re: language - you can check with the local chamber of commerce from the information in the expat guide as there may be China provided services in Mauritius...  I remember that there was a Chinese consular service office way back when I was in the country.

Hope that this helps.

@Cosmos Chile Team

Hi

Can you please let me know who did the installation for you

Thanks