This paper highlights South Africa"s climate change situation and discusses the application of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures in the residential sector as a means of mitigating climate change. A case study of a prototype energy efficient solar house that was designed and built at the University of Fort Hare is presented. The house has passive solar features, a solar water heater for hot water supply and a building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) generator that supplies electrical power to the household appliances. An automated data acquisition system comprised of an outdoor weather station and a datalogger was installed. Thermal and electrical performance of the building integrated photovoltaic generator and indoor and outdoor ambient conditions were monitored. Energy performance data recorded over a year revealed that the energy efficient solar house has the potential to mitigate 12.41 tonnes of CO2e per annum