Hilton Cape Town City Centre is proud to announce that the newly installed Solarus solar system on the building’s roof is now fully operational. This large hybrid Photovoltaic and Thermal (PVT) system, which provides the luxury hotel with both heat and electricity for its 137 hotel rooms, will not only be a cost-effective solution for the hotel, the reduction of CO2 will also be significant. With savings of more than 200.000 kg of carbon emissions per year, this integrated solar installation contributes to Hilton’s sustainability goals to cut their environmental footprint in half across their value chain by 2030.

Partner in the journey towards sustainable tourism

“The implementation of the Solarus solar system is a further step of Hilton Cape Town City Centre’s efforts to achieve Hilton’s Travel with Purpose 2030 goals, to drive sustainable travel and to be a positive impact in our communities and environments that we do business in.

Hilton’s “Big Five” commitment for Africa is aimed at driving sustainable tourism and opportunity for youth and this system will allow us to save both water as well as reduce the reliance on external energy sources, supporting that commitment”, says Ernst van Zutphen, General Manager for Hilton Cape Town City Centre”  “Where ever possible, we want to be the hotel’s partner in their journey towards sustainable tourism”, says René Laks, Managing Director for Solarus in South Africa.

“And we see that hotels embrace our product, which produces one of the highest energy yields ever measured thanks to its unique technology and design.” This superior performance gives the ability to accelerate the transition towards a clean energy future. Since hotels have a high demand for hot water, a system that produces both heat and electricity is beneficial to them.

“Not only in terms of reducing fossil fuels, but also in the hotel’s operating costs”, explains Laks. It is estimated, the system at Hilton Cape Town City Centre with 66 PowerCollectors will produce 23.590 kWh of electricity and 85.997 kWh of hot water at 60oC. Over a 20-year period, this installation will save the hotel approximately 6,5 times more than they initially invested in the system.

Part of the cost savings are related to the fact that Solarus is capable of storing energy produced at peak solar hours and redistribute the energy to the morning and evening, when demand for hot water is the highest.

More power per installed surface area

New Southern Energy (NSE), with extensive technical and professional experience in the renewable sector, is Solarus’ EPC partner in South Africa. David Masureik, CEO NSE: “Solar thermal solutions are ideally suited for clients that require thermal energy, such as companies in hospitality.

We appreciate that surface area to install our solution in these sectors is limited; we therefore selected to work exclusively with Solarus as their Power Collectors produce more power per installed surface area then traditional PV panels.

This partnership with Solarus and its unique technologies enables us to provide our clients with a solution to all their water heating requirements.”