INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Green Technology
ABB Robben Island microgrid
ABB microgrid to power
Robben Island
Microgrid technology
and battery energy
storage are enabling
Robben Island to
integrate renewable
solar energy into its
isolated grid, while
keeping the power
supply stable.
B
ringing a modern, sustainable
technology solution to a historically
significant site, ABB has provided
a microgrid system to integrate solar
energy and supply power to Robben
Island, the place where Nelson Mandela
spent 18 years in prison during the
apartheid era. Now a living museum
and World Heritage Site, Robben Island
lies 9 kilometres off the coast of Cape
Town and previously relied on fuel-thirsty,
carbon-emitting diesel generators as the
only source of electric power.
www.intelligentcio.com
Essentially a small-scale electric grid,
the new microgrid will substantially
lower fuel costs and carbon emissions,
enabling the island to run on solar
power for at least nine months of the
year. The microgrid project is part of a
sustainable tourism initiative funded
by the Department of Tourism in South
Africa and was executed for SOLA Future
Energy, an engineering, procurement
and contracting company.
ABB is a pioneer in microgrids, which
because of their size and power are
ideal for remote locations like islands,
which cannot easily be connected to
the main power grid. That is particularly
the case with Robben Island, which
served as a prison for nearly 400 years
because the strong currents around
the 4.8 square km island made escape
almost impossible.
Robben Island became a symbol of
non-violent anti-apartheid resistance
during and after the imprisonment of
Mandela, who after his release became
president in 1994 and led South Africa
through the early years of its transition.
The Robben Island Museum, which
opened in 1997, is today one of South
Africa’s most popular tourist sites. It
receives more than 300,000 visitors a
year, who come to the island by ferry
and are led on guided tours by former
political prisoners.
With about 100 museum staff living
on the island, which also has a working
lighthouse and busy harbour, Robben
Island has the electricity requirements
of a small village. The microgrid will
capture solar energy from a 667
kilowatt peak photovoltaic field –
equivalent to the average power needed
for about 130 homes – that has been
installed on the island.
The system is equipped with ABB solar
inverters that convert the variable
direct current (DC) output from the
solar panels into the alternating current
(AC) required for electric utilities. As
the main energy source, the microgrid
will reduce carbon emissions and the
fuel demands of the diesel generators,
INTELLIGENTCIO
57