The German International School Cape Town (DSK), in Tamboerskloof, this week switched on its new 150 kW solar electricity system, aimed at supplying the entire school with energy from the sun and feeding excess energy into the City of Cape Town’s grid.
The new system, along with an initial offgrid photovoltaic (PV) system installed in 2010, will be accessible for students to compare functionality and production data of both on- and offgrid applications.
“Learners will also gather information on the financial savings of such an investment into a renewable-energy system. This will create awareness and understanding for the vast opportunities for renewable energy in South Africa and Africa,” explained DSK headmaster Alexander Kirmse.
SolarWorld Africa provided the photovoltaic panels and SMA Solar Technology the solar inverters, while Schletter South Africa provided the mounting structure and installed the solar system to the school’s roof.
“The solar system runs on 442 pieces of SW 340 XL mono solar panels and can achieve an output of up to 150 kW at any given time of full sun exposure,” said SolarWorld Africa MD Gregor Küpper.
SMA CTO Dr Jürgen Reinert added: “The system is monitored through SMA’s Sunny Portal and, during the first eight weeks of operational testing, around 38 MWh were generated, of which 13 MWh were fed back into the grid. Six SMA Sunny Tripower 25000 inverters convert the direct current power from the PV modules to alternating current power.