BOTSWANA NEWS
Solar installations - Sebele Centre and Mashatu Terrace
By Kagiso Sebetso
As you may be aware , Time Projects and PrimeTime have embarked on a journey to install solar panels on the roofs of our buildings . The first building to have solar installed was Mashatu Terrace where we installed 240kWp of photovoltaic ( PV ) on the roof . The second is Sebele Centre which has 811kWp of photovoltaic system installed on the roof . Both systems are grid tied and are part of the BPC rooftop solar scheme which allows us to feed back into the grid and benefit from net-metering .
Both entities are aware of the need to rely on renewable energy sources for reduction of operational carbon emissions as well as for resource security . The performance and output of both systems is accessed and managed remotely on a web-based platform . This allows us to view how much electricity is imported from the grid , consumed from the solar PV and how much is fed back into the grid . It also allows us to see our operational carbon footprint reduction .
The Mashatu Terrace Solar-Log Dashboard image shows a display of the solar performance at Mashatu on a particular day , before 11am . At this point in time , the building consumption was 174.69kW and the solar was producing 203.05kW which is slightly above what the building needed . Normally this excess production would be curtailed but because the property is on a netmetering basis with the BPC grid , the excess production was fed into the grid .
The system , at that point in time , was producing about 4 % more than what was required . This excess production of 29.69kW is fed into the BPC grid . In addition to the electricity production described above , Solar-Log also displays various ways in which the use of a renewable energy source contributes to the environment .
Mashatu Terrace
Sebele Centre
ISSUE 52 - DECEMBER 2022 7