Large-scale solar installation for local operation

Escalating power outages and rising diesel costs led Western Cape fruit packing facility Bella Frutta to seek a photovoltaic (PV) solution that could integrate with its existing diesel generators.

Encompassing short-term bin storage, packing, finished product storage, and loadouts, the Ceres company relied on two sizable diesel generators to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply for its conveyor belts and storage units in order to adhere to the demands of the European export market.

African Technical Innovations (ATI) was responsible for the first solar installation at the premises and MD Kobus Engelbrecht explained that it turned to SOLARWORLD Africa to provide inverters and panels: “…because they represent world-leading brands locally, enabling ATI to install excellent Huawei SUN2000-100KTL smart string inverters, combined with the best-in-class PV modules from Hanwha Q Cells, thereby allowing us to offer Bella Frutta the most efficient solution.” 

SUN2000-100KTL Huawei inverters and 430 W Q Cells PV modules were used for the initial 200 kWp installation, which included the integration of existing diesel generators.

African Solar Installations (ASI) headed up the second phase installation, which consisted of eight SUN2000-100KTL Huawei inverters and more than 1 MW of Q Cells PV modules - again supplied by SOLARWORLD. 

“Huawei has also embraced digital technology with the aim being to eliminate unnecessary costs for its partners as there are no unnecessary technical call-out fees. Their application, FusionSolar, is practical, user-friend and frequently updated - it is a plus point as I use it to monitor the Bella Frutta installations while on the go,” said ASI MD Jandre Engelbrecht. 

Huawei’s management system is designed to enable users to check the status of an installation and identify problems remotely, helping to reduce manual re-sets and on-site working hours.