Project Category Southern Africa

New Southern Energy developed and built a solar system for Howbill fruit farm, in the Koue Bokkeveld region of the Western Cape, in South Africa.
For Phase 1 of the project, NSE designed a 1.135 Megawatt Single Axis Solar PV Tracker system, which is intended to reduce their electricity bill utilizing the sun’s energy. The PV Tables rotate on a single-axis tracking system, using slew drive motors and a central torque tube, tracking the sun from east to west, resulting in a substantial increase of energy produced. The integration of this technology means that the system generates more energy than a fixed PV system. The design also provides for Diesel and solar co-generation and soft load transfer.
The system has already produced in excess of 103 MW of power, which is consumed directly. Phase 2 and Phase 3 are work in progress.

Intended to reduce the electricity consumption bill of the premises by utilising the available sun energy, this 1.1088 MWp grid tied solar system was installed at The Nicolway Mall, in Bryanston. The system consists of 2772 x 400Wp Canadian Solar PV modules and 33 x 27 kW Solaredge inverters. The performance of the system will be continuously monitored by New Southern Energy’s O&M department, and data will be easily accessible through an online portal.

Gogo Fruits operate a fresh produce packing facility in Mable Hall, Limpopo, South Africa where energy is needed to run cooling and processing equipment. New Southern Energy developed a rooftop solar plant to add renewable power capacity to the facility, to reduce electricity costs and to help ensure uninterrupted operations.

Golden Arrow is a transport bus service depot with ample underutilized roof space in Cape Town. The roof space available made this a great site for a grid-tied solution whereby the client is able to feed back to the grid. As a result of this, council granted the client permission to erect the plant and registered them on a new grid-feed tariff for small scale embedded generators.

Warburton Saagmeule operates an industrial sawmill operation just outside Ermelo, Mpumalanga, the province in which the bulk of South Africa’s forestry plantations are situated. With various kinds of machinery, the facility saws logs into specific formatted shapes as well as into planks and boards. The sawmill is equipped with cutting, planing, molding, tenoning, and other machinery for timber finishing processes.
New Southern Energy designed and a built a sophisticated 831.6 kWp single-axis tracking Solar PV system for Warburton Saagmeule. In this system, a set of ground-mounted trackers direct the solar panels toward the sun. These devices change their orientation throughout the day to follow the sun's path from east to west, using drive motors, enabling the solar panels to capture as much solar energy as possible.

A shopping mall situated in Piet Retief, South Africa, the site required a renewable energy system to reduce grid consumption and carbon emissions during the daytime. N.S.E. provided a full EPC/development service implementing a complete grid-tied solar solution. The site now supplements +30% of it’s total demand through solar with an ongoing O&M contract ensuring continuous system performance and optimization.

A shopping mall situated in Limpopo, South Africa. The site requires a renewable energy system to reduce grid consumption and carbon emissions during the daytime. NSE provided a full EPC/development service implementing a complete grid-tied solar system.

Sossusvlei Desert Lodge is a lodge located in the NamibRand Nature Reserve in Namibia. Set against spectacular landscapes and hosting brilliant star sightings, the lodge underwent a complete rebuild in 2019, allowing visitors an even more astounding experience. Prior to its renovations, the lodge had been running on a diesel generator making OPEX not only expensive but creating a great logistical challenge to get diesel to such a remote location. The need for an off-grid solution was pressing and we are honored to have provided them the system to transform their operations as well as improve guests' experience.
Images courtesy of: AndBeyond

Cape Fruit Coolers is an independent organization with the sole aim of servicing the fruit export industry (exporters and producers) and has been operational since November 2004. CFC provides a world-class cold storage facility that incorporates the latest software solutions and state of the art refrigeration facilities.

This agricultural site required a grid tied solar PV installation to reduce its overall consumption and dependence and on utility energy supply. The site produces fruit for the commercial market and is heavily reliant on a consistent supply of energy to power pumps for irrigation and cold room storage units. Solar PV was a financially attractive, reliable solution which best met the client’s needs. Being a farm, this is a large site with multiple utility connection points existing . Apart from providing a consistent energy supply, the focus was to reduce the amount of utility connections to a single point into which the solar tied in to. Thereafter power is distributed to various points across the site via a microgrid which was installed in conjunction with energy generation component. A backup generator was also installed.