Emperors Palace launches rooftop solar PV plant

The construction of one of the largest rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) plants in South Africa, at Emperors Palace, in Boksburg, Gauteng, has reached 50% completion, with finalisation of the 1.045 MW rooftop plant set for August this year.

Construction of the plant, which will be a grid-tied solar PV system that will produce power alongside the Ekurhuleni muni- cipal feed, started in February.

About 4 000 Canadian Solar Tier 1 modules, in sizes of 250 W and 315 W, will be installed and connected to 37 SMA inverters to regulate the direct current to alternate current for power supply. About 18 km of cabling is required for the plant.

Energy engineering solutions provider Terra Firma Solutions is building the plant and first conducted a detailed study to ensure the roof could support the weight of the solar panels and associated equipment.

As a result, the plant will be divided into smaller plants or arrays across five roof sections.

The study also entailed an analysis of the electrical demand of the site; it was concluded that Emperors Palace would (directly) use all the solar power produced.

The plant will cover about 7 265 m2of the current roof space and is expected to gene- rate about 1.9 MWh/y of electricity.

“This would equate to about R2-million of electricity savings a year at the current tariffs,” Terra Firma Solutions marketing manager Fred Hagelberg noted at the plant’s launch last month.

The plant’s generation capacity could also supply visitors with more than nine-million hours a year of slot machine time, he quipped.

Emperors Palace complex operations execu- tive Nigel Atherton added that Emperors Palace could generate “a substantial quota of its own power and alleviate its burden on the national power grid significantly”.

Hagelberg noted that, once at peak production, the solar PV plant is expected to produce between 15% and 20% of Emperors Palace’s electricity needs. With optimum roof space allocated to the plant, Terra Firma Solutions was considering the potential of expanding the plant in future, he added.

This initiative, which focuses on power generation, is one of several greening initiatives that has been undertaken at Emperors Palace.

“. . . this initiative is just one of our key priorities. Peermont Hotels, Casinos & Resorts has a dedicated sustainability programme to reduce the group’s energy and water consumption, decrease waste and promote recycling. “The overall objective is to continuously reduce any potential negative impact on our natural environment while maintaining and improving the overall experience for our guests,” he concluded.