Banking group Nedbank has transformed a Cape Town-based banking branch to run exclusively on renewable energy, while feeding excess electricity into the national grid.
The Lansdowne Corner branch is powered off-the-grid through a hybrid energy installation, which is capable of supplying the branch’s full yearly electricity demand of 70 000 kWh.
The system, installed by Kestrel Renewable Energy, was tied to the national grid to offload the excess electricity the system produces during some months.
This approach would allow the bank to recoup its set-up costs within two years.
“The off-grid hybrid installation … builds on the similar success we have achieved previously with the implementation of South Africa’s first partially wind-powered bank branch in Du Noon, also in the Western Cape, unveiled in 2010,” said Nedbank Retail consumer banking managing executive Ciko Thomas.