Hi guys I know you probably thought I had been smoking something when I said that cold stores in South Africa should look at putting PV panels on their roofs. Well, follow the link and view a cold store that has done just this on Reunion. It is a 13,000 pallet store so this is a big operation. http://www.akuoenergy.com/en/what-we-do/solar/logistisud.html I wonder when SA will get its first installation ?
photo voltaic panels = cold store roof Read More »
Earlier this year Barpro Storage assisted a local company, Heliogen, to put up a prototype carport /electric car recharger outside our offices in Milnerton, Cape Town. As South Africa’s electric car project (the Joule) has been discontinued, the approx. 20m2 of PV panels have been supplying electricity to the Barpro building via an invertor. Yesterday at about 10.00am, the panels were supplying 884 watts, although this dropped later in the day due to clouding and partial building shadow. A recent visit to Australia showed that residential houses are installing PV panels, with the number expecting to rise to 10% by the end of 2012. The installations on each roof vary but 20m2 is about average. As far as cold stores are concerned, the large roof areas may hold potential for PV panels, especially if they are installed instead of roof sheeting. I have visited one store in London’s newly developed docklands with PV panels on the roof. Several cold stores in the US have larger scale PV installations and Commercial Cold Storage, City Deep, has installed PV panels with batteries to power their docking equipment. Installing large scale PV installations will inevitably come down to cost, but it is possible that ESKOM might provide a grant as such installations would substantially reduce electricity demand. For more information on the potential for PV panels and cold stores, call Mark Dawson of Heliogen on 072 412 3715 or email him on mark.dawson@heliogen.co.za
Gabor Hilton, Engineer at Oxford Cold Storage in Melbourne, Australia visited South Africa in June of this year. Invited by SARDA, he addressed two open meetings on cold store energy efficiency, participated at a meeting of South Africa’s cold store energy committee and visited both cold and chilled stores in the Western Cape and Johannesburg. With over 45 years of cold storage experience Gabor was happy to discuss all aspects of refrigeration and how energy costs could be reduced. One of the points he made about South African stores was that, in some instances, the basics of energy saving still required attention. For example, too many cold store doors were being left open for extended periods, he said. Managers had to understand how badly this affected energy efficiency and ensure that the doors were kept closed. He also pointed out some other simple energy saving changes that could be made to refrigeration systems. If you would like to know more, feel free to contact James Cunningham. Phone (021) 552 9190 or email james@barpro.co.za
Gabor Hilton Visits us from Australia Read More »