Vodacom announced a short while ago that their Century City office would from August boast the largest array of solar panels on a single building in Africa. Nearly 2 000 mono crystalline solar panels will cover the 3 600m² roof of the building, it said.

Suraya Hamdulay, executive head of corporate citizenship at Vodacom, has more:

The position of the Century City rooftop is perfect for generating a high yield of solar power throughout the year. This is a prime example of how business can take the lead in promoting renewable energy solutions. Our target is to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 31 March 2013 which will translate into an estimated 79 000 tonnes saving.

Vodacom compiled some facts on the Century City Solar Project:

• The photovoltaic array will supply 500 kilo-watt peak (kWp) at peak production to the building.

• The office currently uses 650 kWp of power from the municipality.

• The total annual energy savings is expected to be around 830.1MWh.

• This equates to charging more than 70 million cellphones over a year.

The project, which is a follow on from the Vodafone Site Solutions Innovation Center in Midrand – a building with a six-star rating, and coincidentally the greenest building in Africa due to its water, energy and emissions efficiency – will be completed in August this year.

That building houses a team of engineers that investigate and design ways in which Vodafone can implement additional cost efficiencies and reduce carbon emissions worldwide.

The solar array at Century City is expected to provide up to 75 per cent of all power required by the building during peak production.

That power produced will be fed into two main distribution boards. Visitors to the building will then be able to view a display panel that will be fitted onto the distribution boards installed in the reception area of the building, and see instantaneous power yield, energy yield and carbon emission savings.

Vodacom said it has already reduced its energy inputs by 12 per cent per base station across the Vodacom Group.

“We are continually on the lookout for new ways of reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions,” says Hamdulay.

[Source: Twitter]