All images supplied by LG Electronics South Africa www. refrigerationandaircon. co. za 19
ENERGY EFFICIENCY FEATURE SERIES
EFFICIENCY BEFORE RENEWABLES
By Eamonn Ryan
South Africa’ s construction and engineering sectors are showing renewed confidence, and the signal is coming through loudest from renewable energy development.
Energy efficiency
Recent industry surveys indicate that activity linked to clean energy generation is now one of the strongest drivers of growth in civil construction, pushing confidence to its highest level in more than a decade. While broader infrastructure investment remains uneven, renewables have emerged as a bright spot – catalysing work, improving profitability and restoring momentum across the value chain.
The latest FNB / BER civil confidence index jumped nine points to 52, the best reading since 2016 and the joint highest in 11 years, indicating that more than half of respondents were satisfied with prevailing business conditions.
This resurgence is not only about megawatts added to the grid. It reflects a deeper shift in how energy is generated, managed and consumed – with implications that extend well beyond power plants into the buildings we design, operate and condition every day. As renewable generation expands, the focus is increasingly turning to demand-side efficiency: reducing energy loads, optimising HVAC & R systems, and ensuring that buildings are designed to work with available energy rather than against it. For the HVAC & R sector, this alignment between renewable energy and energy efficiency is critical. Renewable power performs best when paired with buildings that are inherently low-energy, well insulated and intelligently controlled. In this environment, zero energy buildings, hybrid HVAC systems and on-site solar solutions are no longer aspirational concepts – they are practical responses to economic pressure, grid instability and sustainability targets.
This feature explores how that convergence is taking shape – from nature-inspired zero energy buildings to modern HVAC & R strategies and solar solutions that are redefining sustainability across Africa’ s built environment.
LESSONS FROM LG’ S DE DEUR OFF-GRID HVAC PROJECT The I and S Workshops and Warehouse, De Deur, project emerged from a fundamental design challenge: delivering a fully functional, high-performance HVAC solution for a commercial building designed to operate on 100 % solar power. Situated in a remote location with no access to Eskom infrastructure, the development was forced to confront its energy strategy from the earliest planning stages.
RACA Journal I March 2026
“ With no municipal supply available, the question wasn’ t how much backup we needed – it was whether we needed the grid at all,” explains Andries Bekker, ECO Solutions general manager at LG Electronics South Africa.
From an infrastructure perspective, the client faced a choice: invest an amount in a new electrical substation, or pursue a standalone solar solution. Rising electricity costs and ongoing grid instability tipped the balance decisively. A solar installation ultimately replaced the need for the substation entirely, immediately reshaping how the rest of the building systems were designed.
“ That decision changed everything. Once the client committed to going fully solar, every other system, especially HVAC, had to justify its energy demand,” Bekker says.
The facility now operates entirely on solar power, with no reliance on municipal electricity and only a diesel generator retained as a contingency measure. Achieving this level of energy independence for a building of this scale required a tightly integrated design approach, particularly for HVAC, identified early on as the dominant electrical load.
“ We knew from day one that air conditioning would be the biggest consumer of energy in the building. So the HVAC system couldn’ t just be efficient – it had to be intelligent and responsive to the available power,” Bekker notes.
From the outset, the air-conditioning system was required to deliver more than occupant comfort. It had to integrate seamlessly with the solar plant, modulate its capacity in response to real-time energy availability / sunlight, and maintain high efficiency across varying operating conditions. Energy performance, capacity control, lifecycle cost and remote monitoring capability all became central design criteria.
I and S Workshops and Warehouse, located in De Deur, enjoys energy efficiency – all while operating entirely off grid.
All images supplied by LG Electronics South Africa www. refrigerationandaircon. co. za 19