Construction

The biggest solar photovoltaic plant in Africa – Installation by Solareff

Construction, Energy Savings, General Interest /

Hyprop Investment Limited’s Gauteng-based regional shopping centre, Clearwater Mall, has tripled the generation output of its solar photovoltaic (PV) plant and now boasts Africa’s largest rooftop Solar PV system. The first phase, totaling 500kWp, was installed in November 2014. Due to its success, Hyprop installed the second phase of Solar PV at Clearwater Mall, adding an additional 1000kWp, which is expected to increase energy savings at the mall by up to 10% of the mall’s total consumption. The system generates on average 2500000kWh electricity per annum, equal to the consumption in the same period of 347 average households. The panels cover an area of approximately 12000m², saving 3000 tons of coal per annum thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions in excess of 2500 tons per annum. The energy yield from solar panels closely matches the electrical consumption curve of the shopping malls and the bulk of electricity is used during the daytime, making solar panels the ideal alternate energy source. As malls operate seven days a week there is no wastage of solar energy over weekends. A further benefit is that solar energy requires minimal maintenance. CEO Pieter Prinsloo says: “The additional 1000kWp will help mitigate the impact of continuously rising electricity costs, as well as shrinking Hyprop’s carbon footprint, in line with the primary objectives of our environmental strategy.”  Prinsloo confirms that Hyprop’s investment in solar power for Clearwater Mall is the first step with similar ‘green’ solutions to be rolled out at other centres in the portfolio.

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To All South African Cold Store Managers

Construction, Energy Savings, General Interest, Maintenance, Mobile Racking, Other Products, Safety /

The energy efficiency tax incentive has been increased. The amendment to Section 12L of the Taxation Laws Amendment Act has noted an increase in the deduction from 45c/kWh to 95c/kWh or kilowatt-hour-equivalent of energy saved and is available to any business, industry or mining company. For more information and the full story visit http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/energy-efficiency-tax-rebate-increased-to-95ckwh-2016-01-18 Cold stores should establish monthly base energy usage figures and then claim for future savings against tax. This doubling of the deduction also suggests that South African cold stores should reconsider the payback period for photovoltaic  roof mounted  electrical generation systems when new cold stores are being built or for retrofitting them where possible on existing facilities. Happy to put you in touch with PV suppliers. James Cunningham james@barpro.co.za Tel: 021 552 9190

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Case Study – Kromco Fruit Store, Grabouw

Construction, Energy Savings, General Interest, Maintenance, Mobile Racking /

Kromco had their first 8 mobile racks installed in 1998. Each mobile is 10 bays of three pallets long and four pallets in the height giving them a total, together with the fixed racks, of 2504 pallet positions. The Storax system was equipped with aisle light switching and pallet support bars which significantly strengthen the racking superstructure by providing lateral stiffening to the beams. The racking superstructure and pallet support beams were supplied by Universal Storage. The then manager, Basil Smit, and foreman Lionel Booysens were happy with the new installation. “Although the delivery schedule was tight”, said Basil, “the Storax system was installed on time”. In 2011, Kromco had decided to expand by converting half of a second store to Storax mobiles. In December 2015 Barpro Storage installed the rails and balance of the bases in the second store to increase the total capacity in both rooms to 4984 pallets, just in time for the New Year rush. Should they have originally decided to only install static racking in these two rooms, their storage capacity would have dropped to 2584 pallets, a decrease of approximately 50%!     The latest 4 mobiles have the new photoelectric trip bar which was designed and manufactured locally by Barpro Storage. The new PE trip bar is cost effective, more resilient to fork truck damage and can easily be retro fitted to any existing Storax system.   Read more: New innovations at Novo Fruit Packers Read more: State-of-the-art Freezer Store in Walvis Bay Read more: Etlin International maintenance project [gravityform id=”10″ title=”true” description=”true”]

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