SolarWorld continues its renewable stride throughout Africa, particularly sub-Sahara. The group has completed projects in the Dube Tradeport, Century City Vodacom, and Ceres Koelkamers. Most recently the group completed a 237-kWh roof-mounted crystalline PV installation in Namibia.
The Dube Tradeport installation, in collaboration with Sustainable Power Solutions, saw Africa’s largest roof-mounted PV system to date. The first phase, a 218-kWh installation, was commissioned in November 2011 and the second phase, a 430-kWp-h installation, was completed during the course of 2012. The 2,848 SolarWorld solar panels, with a total output of 630 kWh, cover an area of approximately 4,700 square miles.
The company supplied 2,127 SW255 PV panels for the Vodacom administrative headquarters in Century City, Cape Town. The system, which has pitched and flat roof sections, was installed by In-Toto Solutions over a 3,600-square mile area, using SolarWorld’s semi-integrated Sundeck® and flat roof mounting structures Suntab®. The installation is expected to produce about 75% of the 650 kWh power requirements of the building during peak production.
Another first in Africa for the agriculture sector is the 508 kWh rooftop installation on a cold storage facility in Ceres, offering cooling options for fruit and vegetable growers in the region. The turnkey project is to be implemented by African Technical Innovations (Pty) Ltd (ATI) based in Ceres with SolarWorld supplying the solar technology. The electricity generated by the system will save the facility approximately 20% of their annual electricity bill.
“We are setting the benchmark for the industry, delivering high quality technologically advanced products to our clients,” SolarWorld Africa’s Managing Director Gregor Küpper said.
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