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George Municipality executives recently did a sod turning to mark the beginning of the construction of a lMWp solar farm in the George Industrial area and visited the Outeniqua Wastewater Treatment Works to see the start of the erection of a 400MWp solar PV installation.
Once completed, the solar projects will help to alleviate the impact of South Africas loadshedding on the George Municipality grid by providing protection for up to 2 stages of loadshedding and powering the municipalitys wastewater treatment works during
the daytime.
1 MWp grid-tied solar plant to combat loadshedding
The lMWp solar plant is the forerunner of an eventual fleet of 10MW plants that we will be erecting in George over the next couple of years to provide electricity into the
municipalitys grid to ultimately get off stage 1 and stage 2 of loadshedding.
The 1MWp PV plant will consist of approximately 1,728 PV Panels and ten HOkW
inverters at a total cost of R24,843,090.36. The plant is expected to generate in the order of 1,780MWh per year.
The renewable energy power that will be generated through this plant, will be connected to the grid to reduce the municipal bulk purchases. This sod turning which took place on approximately 1 hectare of land, therefore, signals the beginning of an initiative to take George off Stages 1 and 2 off loadshedding by the end of 2024.
400kWp to power Wastewater Treatment Works
The 400kWp solar PV plant will, once erected in the next couple of months, will be able to power most of the local Wastewater Treatment Works electrical loads during the
daytime.
The 400kWp solar system, according to George Municipal Electrotechnical Services Director Bongani Mandla, will comprise 736 panels, with each panel rated at 545 Watts.
The expected annual energy yield is 678,680kWhs and at a rate of Rl,6 per kWh, the cost of the annual energy generated is Rl,085,888. The calculated payback period of the system is 7 years. The lifespan of PV systems is usually around 20 to 25 years. The systems total cost, including a 24-month operation and maintenance period and training of 4 municipal staff, is R7,8 million (inclusive of VAT).
"Then we have the inverters that convert the DC power from the panels into AC electricity thats required by the loads. We have a total of eight (8) inverters, with each inverter rated at 50kW," Mandla commented.
Grid-tied system to eventually get energy storage component
"The system will be grid-tied with no storage. However, it will allow for integration of battery storage to be installed in the next financial year," Mandla added. "The power generated will be fed into the facilitys main low-voltage distribution board where the loads (pumps and motors) required to operate the wastewater facility are connected."
In addition, the PV solar system will have a weather monitoring station equipped with sensors to measure parameters such as the irradiance, wind speed and wind direction, humidity, ambient temperature, PV panels temperature, etc. This data, including the PV production data, will be sent to a cloud, and then displayed on aSCADA system, for remote monitoring (in near real-time).
In terms of environmental sustainability, the carbon emissions that will be avoided using energy generated from a clean and renewable source is 12,809 tonnes over 25 years. The installation will occupy an area of approximately 4,800 square metres.
Be sure to pick up your copy of ESI Africa magazine issue 1 at En/it Africa - will run an
exclusive story about George Municipaiitys wheeiing pilot |
