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Cape Town - Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront is seeing the start of the installation of more than 7 500m² of solar panels on eight rooftops of key buildings on the 123-hectare property, as the landmark property expands its emphasis on going green.
The installation follows a tender process that was completed in June of this year in which Sustainable Power Solutions was awarded the engineering and procurement Contractor (EPC) business. As part of this tender, SolarWorld Africa is the chosen Photovoltaic (PV) module supplier.
The solar project will provide 4 207 SolarWorld SunModule Plus SW260 Poly PV modules with an output of 1 093.8kWp. The project will produce an estimated 1 640 000kWh units of clean energy, and reduce 1 610 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. The average daily production of this system will be 4 495kWh, which is the energy needed to supply one day’s worth of electricity to 310 average-sized households.
Axel Scholle, managing director of Sustainable Power Solutions said it is a privilege to be a part of this flagship project.
The first phase is set for completion in October 2015 and the overall project is scheduled to go live by early 2016. SolarWorld solar panels will be installed on the roofs of the Watershed, the Breakwater, the Clock Tower, Granger Bay, Two Oceans Aquarium, Ports Edge, West Quay and Portswood House.
SolarWorld Africa managing director Gregor Kuepper said this installation is significant in that it shall become the beacon for the roll out of solar rooftop applications for embedded generation in the commercial sector across South Africa, and further North into the continent.
"Furthermore, this project instills the financial benefits of a diversified energy mix, while emphasising the importance of becoming environmentally friendly,” he said.
The V&A Waterfront’s executive manager of operations Colin Devenish said The V&A Waterfront is committed to ensuring its environmental and sustainability measures and initiatives are at the forefront of all its business practices.
"We believe that this project enables us to deliver world-class standards that can be measured against responsible business practices,” he said.
The V&A Waterfront attracted more than 24 million visitors and reported a 19% increase in retail trade sales for 2014, marking four consecutive years of consistent growth since 2011. The property has contributed R259.1bn in nominal terms to the South African economy over the last twelve years, with a cumulative contribution to the provincial GGP of over R227bn since 2002.
