Monetize your watts
Your roof is a power plant. Treat it like one.
Eight ways to turn surplus kWh into income. Each watt is sold once — self-use first, then the next-best buyer takes what's left.
Monetize stack at a glance
- Total / yr (full stack)
- $3,212
- All 8 paths active
- Paths
- 8
- Pick any subset
- Payback range
- 2.8–12y
- Years to break even
- Core rule
- One kWh, sold once
- Never double-counted
Eight ways to monetize a watt
Self-use first, then by best € / kWh
- Risk: LowPayback: 4.2 yearsPer year: $612
Battery arbitrage
Charge cheap, discharge peak.
- Risk: MediumPayback: 2.8 yearsPer year: $720
BTC mining
Run a low-power ASIC on surplus.
- Risk: LowPayback: 6.1 yearsPer year: $240
Thermal storage
Surplus → hot-water tank.
- Risk: MediumPayback: 8.5 yearsPer year: $380
V2H / V2G
Discharge the EV during peak.
- Risk: LowPayback: 12.0 yearsPer year: $340
Feed-in tariff
Sell residual to the grid.
- Risk: MediumPayback: 5.8 yearsPer year: $280
EV peer charging
Sell to a neighbour's EV.
- Risk: HighPayback: 3.2 yearsPer year: $460
DePIN compute
Helium, Storj, Akash — earn tokens.
- Risk: LowPayback: 9.4 yearsPer year: $180
Community share
Share surplus with neighbours.
Want exact numbers for your roof? Open the calculator →
Where the power and the money go
Solar → inverter → buyer → € back
How it works
Step 1
Generate
Your solar array produces kWh during the day. Self-consumption takes priority — what you use at home is the most valuable kWh.
Step 2
Route surplus
What you don't use is routed by the inverter / energy manager to the next-best paying channel: battery arbitrage, mining, V2H, thermal, feed-in, etc.
Step 3
Earn € back
Each channel returns € to the household. Stacking 3 – 5 channels typically delivers 4–6× the income of feed-in-only.
Frequently asked
Does each kWh get sold twice across these channels?
No. Each kWh is routed to exactly one buyer in sequence — self-consumption first, then the next-best paying channel (battery arbitrage, BTC mining, V2H, thermal storage, feed-in, etc.). The rule is one kWh, sold once.
Why does battery arbitrage and self-consumption dominate in African markets?
Most African grids combine high retail rates with frequent load-shedding (especially South Africa Eskom, Kenya KPLC, Nigeria DisCos). Storing surplus to discharge during outages or peak hours typically yields the highest return. Feed-in tariffs are limited; net-metering exists in a handful of markets (Kenya NET, Egypt FiT) but pays below retail.
Is BTC mining surplus solar actually profitable in Africa in 2026?
Yes — Africa has some of the strongest economics globally. Surplus-only mining with a low-power ASIC (BitAxe, Apollo, Antminer S21 Hyd at low-watt mode) typically returns $0.07–$0.14 per kWh of surplus at hashprice $55–$70. Mining converts otherwise-curtailed energy into a hard-asset stream that can be exchanged for local currency.
Can off-grid rural installations use these channels?
Self-consumption, battery arbitrage (against your own load schedule), thermal storage (hot water), and BTC mining all work fully off-grid. V2H requires a compatible bidirectional EV charger. Feed-in and DePIN require either grid export or internet — typically only available in peri-urban installations.
Does the calculator account for panel degradation and electricity inflation?
Yes. The 25-year NPV chart applies 0.5% annual panel degradation and 3% annual electricity-price inflation, discounted at 5%. LFP batteries are modelled at 6,000 cycles to 80% State of Health. Adjust your assumptions via the sliders.