Cable connections expert Lapp Group Southern Africa’s renewable energy division has completed a 30 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) installation at Coca-Cola South Africa’s new Valpré spring water plant in Heidelberg.
The R1.6-million investment feeds into Coca-Cola’s internal grid, supplementing its power requirements with solar energy and significantly reducing its reliance on the national grid. In addition to saving energy and money on electricity costs, carbon dioxide savings will be achieved, resulting in a lower environmental impact.
The PV plant design consists of 132 230 W IBC grid-type solar modules, two SMA 15 000 TL tri-power inverters, and a web box for monitoring the performances of the PV plant.
Lapp Group Southern Africa is the sole representative distributing the German manufactured IBC solar panels in South Africa, and provides engineering advice, product specification, installation and training for stand alone PV and wind turbine applications, as well as back-up and alternative power solutions for small holdings to large commercial buildings.
Provisions have been made to increase the capacity at the Valpré plant to 90 kW.
Lapp Group Southern Africa’s renewable energy division director Dieter Dilchert explains that the Lapp Group Southern Africa and SAR SA engineers installed the 132 solar modules in less than five hours.
This, Dilchert adds, was possible thanks to a new mounting structure from Terafix. Instead of spending hours using inner and outer brackets to mount the PV panels individually, installers simply slide up to three panels into a groove and fasten the panels with end stops. This saves time and makes the installation less vulnerable to theft.
The new Valpré plant is currently undergoing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) certification. Leed is an internationally recognised programme for benchmarking design, construction and operation of green buildings.
Leed green building accreditation is based on a point system, and to achieve this status companies need at least 100 points. Project engineers have to provide all energy saving measures used in the construction of the ‘green’ building, such as double glazing, specialized roof insulation, energy efficient lighting, light sensors and solar water heating. In the case of the Valpré plant, eight points were awarded for the PV installation.
Valpré’s new plant and new ‘green’ bottle are said to advance the bottling industry’s ‘green’ strategy. “With the new Heidelberg plant, Valpré will reduce its carbon footprint, lower its water usage ratio, and adopt energy efficiency lighting and production technologies,” says South African National Bottled Water Association executive director, Charlotte Metcalf.
Lapp explains that a usual PV solution would feed into the system with a battery backup, however, because the client already had a backup system in the form of two 1 250 kW generators, no battery system was required.
Other Lapp installations include the Lapp Group building in Gauteng, which has been equipped with PV solar and a wind turbine to serve as backup to its electronics equipment in the event of load shedding and power outages.
Standalone applications with a combination of wind and PV solar have also been installed on various farms in South Africa.
A successful installation of PV panels at the Equinox shopping mall in Jeffreys Bay has also delivered efficient and consistent energy supply to feed the lighting in the shopping mall, adds the company.
A major installation is currently being undertaken at the new offices of one of South Africa’s top four banking institutions, where IBC’s solar panels and inverters have been specified for their efficiency levels and quality output.
Source: www.engineeringnews.co.za
