A Port Elizabeth company has set a global benchmark by fitting 11 011 solar panels at a single site in a day.
The panels will generate enough power for 920 average-sized three-bedroomed homes.
The record was set by PiA Solar at SCDA3, a 90MWp Solar Capital solar farm located just outside De Aar in the Northern Cape.
Established in 2012, PiA Solar has installed 400 MW of solar power over the past three years – 55 per cent of which (260 MW) has been placed on PiA Solar-designed and manufactured substructures, according to co-founder Colin Muller.
The company has become one of Africa’s biggest installers of solar projects since being awarded the contract to design, manufacture and install the frames for the 75MW Kalkbult solar project in the Northern Cape, which was awarded to Scatec Solar in Round One of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP).
It is the only South African designed and manufactured product which has been selected for the South African REIPPP projects, according to Muller.
Using patented PiA Solar anchors and the company’s own mounting system, the project was completed six weeks ahead of schedule.
PiA Solar is also the first African company to design and manufacture solar tracking systems which optimise the power production by following the sun. The company has developed by the substructure and the software used to control the movement.
Muller says the success of the company is due to it using best practice from their previous experience as suppliers to the Eastern Cape automotive manufacturing sector. “We create what are, in effect, giant factories on site,” he says.
All components are manufactured off-site and are just assembled without any welding required.
“Our greatest achievement, though, is that PiA Solar has created more than 10 000 man months of employment, of which more than 8 000 months has been in normally disadvantaged rural areas.
“It is vital that the rollout of solar power continues as it has the power to create jobs in economically challenged areas while that the same time reducing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels,” says Muller.
Alan Straton
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