Energising the agri sector
Energy independence for the agriculture sector in South Africa has gained intensive attention and traction in recent years. The challenges that the country is facing with ongoing and unpredictable load shedding has come at a very high price to the industry, with agribusinesses experiencing costly disruptions to their entire supply chain – from cold storage, processing and irrigation to automation in packing. “With more than 25% of our local food supply produced by farmers, implementing sustainable and affordable solutions to resolve the energy crises is critical,” states Claude Peters, Managing Director RenEnergy Africa. Sustainable energy supply enables the mitigation of the severe high-cost impact on meat producers.
Growing energy demands
Renewable technology is crucial to reducing our dependence on existing energy utilities, as well as contributing towards harmful polluting fossil fuels. The recently gazetted decision from the government to increase the license-exemption threshold for embedded generation plants from 1 MW to 100 MW is a step in the right direction, allowing private companies to generate their own electricity using solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. PV solar power generation gives consumers access to increased energy accessibility, convenience and security. Solar PV produces electricity directly from solar energy. The panels contain wafers of silicon between layers of glass, metal and an anti-glare coating. When sunlight shines directly on the solar cells, electrons in the silicon are agitated and they start to move, creating a direct current of electricity. This flows through an inverter, which changes it to an alternating current. The solar electricity can then be used in real-time and any unused electricity can be stored in a battery or released to the grid.
Electrifying change
RenEnergy’s self-generated electricity solutions, as well as energy efficiency measures, provides our clients with a maximised and green return on investment with our Grid Tied or Off Grid solar PV and energy storage systems. We take a holistic approach in reviewing infrastructure and consumption needs with our in-house team of designers and installers to provide affordable and eco-friendly ground or roof mounted solutions.
The Grid Tied solar PV system is a customised design that aims to replace as much energy usage from Eskom. Energy is generated through the system for use within the business as and where required.
The Off Grid solar PV system is designed to replace maximum daytime energy requirements with excess energy (purpose design) to charge energy storage for night-time loads. The customised energy storage replaces total energy requirements to create an independent, decentralised grid allowing total independency and control.