Black River Park offices leading the way with solar power

Black River Park, situated just off Liesbeek Parkway in Observatory, is leading the way in the commercial real estate sector by utilising large-scale solar power systems to generate environmentally sustainable energy, for itself and the City’s electricity grid.

How Do They Supply Extra Electricity To The Grid?

Black River Park’s solar panels cover an area of 11 000m2 (just over two full sized rugby fields), making it the second largest rooftop solar array in Africa. They are able to meet 20 – 30% of their own consumption demands during peak electricity usage times. Since signing the first small-scale embedded electricity generation contract with the City of Cape Town, they are now also able to feed a limited amount of extra electricity back into the city’s electricity grid. This also allows an offset against the City’s monthly electricity accounts.

Extra electricity is fed back into the grid over weekends and during low peak times, for example; when the office park’s electrical load is reduced.

Beyond supplying extra electricity, it is hopeful that Black River Park will help stimulate the city’s green economy by increasing demand for solar panels and other sources of alternative energy. This can also help create jobs in this sector.

The City of Cape Town is being recognised on an international level as being at the forefront green initiatives, and the Black River Park project is one of the first steps towards creating a sustainable city that addresses the challenges facing our environment.

How Can Residents Save On Electricity Tariffs?

The City of Cape Town has set a target of sourcing 10% of its electricity from renewable energy resources by 2020. The City is currently running a project to find a solution that allows consumers to feed power back into the grid and receive an offset on their electricity tariff while doing so.

Residents are now able to offset some of their own electricity costs by supplying extra energy into the grid through their own Small-scale Embedded Generator (SSEG). To feed electricity into the municipal electricity grid, consumers need to have a bi-directional advanced meter infrastructure credit meter installed by the City at their own cost and take their electricity supply at the appropriate SSEG tariff.

Source – City of Cape Town