MTN, one of Africa’s largest mobile phone operators, has several projects using renewable energy; now the company is using solar energy to cool its plant in South Africa. Marking the continent’s first concentrated solar cooling plant, MTN installed the system in Johannesburg to power the a/c unit for the entire building.
The system, using Linear Fresnel CSP technology, has 242 solar mirrors covering a total area of 484 sq meters, which track the sun to generate pressurized hot water at 180° Celsius. The hot water in turn powers an absorption chiller that produces chilled water circulated into the data center for cooling of IT equipment.
“You wouldn’t normally associate a telecommunications company with energy efficiency, but this isn’t our first renewable energy project. Our tri-generation plant installed a couple of years ago powers the very building we are in. We have a number of renewable energy projects, and have been recognized in the space,” MTN said during a press conference.Please see Alternative Energy Africa’s “South Sudan: MTN Launches Its 1st Mobile Tower with the Help of Solar”
The project is a part of German Energy Agency (DENA) Solar Roofs program coordinated by DENA and supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The solar cooling plant is a collaboration among MTN, Industrial Solar, Voltas Technologies, and LuftTechnik.
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