The largest retail bank by client numbers and the biggest digital bank in South Africa, Capitec, has commissioned EPC solar installation company, Impower, to design, install, and maintain a ground-breaking solution which integrates both solar and an innovative battery backup system.

Solar solution

The banking giant has turned to solar as a long-term solution to reduce its reliance on the grid, minimise energy costs and play its part in contributing toward net zero. The high-level design specification installed by Impower includes:

• 715 kWp design merging ballasted and roof mounting structures
• The integration of not only a 500/400 kWh battery, but the onsite generator as well as the facility's building management system
• An expected yield of 1 154 887 kWh in the first year after commissioning and 21 563 939 kWh over a 20-year period

Battery storage pioneers

Over and above the large-scale solar installation, Impower is supplying Capitec with a ground-breaking battery backup system that ultimately reduces peak energy costs.

While conventional battery backup systems typically remain idle until a power outage occurs, this innovative design performs peak-shaving. Thus, by investing in Impower’s battery backup system, Capitec can now consume energy within peak times whilst simultaneously trimming costs. Further, such designs can be integrated with diesel generators to provide another layer of energy reliability and reduce operational spend on diesel.

Importantly, the return on investment of the battery system is impressively minimal. Approximately two years ago, the payback period was 7,5 years in contrast to today’s approximately three years. These remarkable results are due to the cyclical nature of the technology which ultimately generates revenue in the short to medium term.

Public-private collaboration

The positive impact of public-private partnerships cannot be underestimated, and this project is no exception. Capitec has been a longstanding client of the Stellenbosch Municipality which has played a monumental role in assisting the bank to acquire its SSEG application.

Any system greater than 350 kW must undergo a grid integration study, which is a systematic framework used to assess a power system with high penetration levels of variable renewable energy (RE).

At 715kW, this project was deemed a candidate for the study and thanks to the timeous and efficient receipt of all the required information from the Stellenbosch Municipality, Capitec’s evaluation was seamlessly and successfully conducted. The financial entity submitted the study, and their small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) application was approved, subsequently representing the largest SSEG approval to date by the local municipality.

Eco-conscious

With a firm commitment to reduce carbon emissions, Capitec is certainly on the right track by collaborating with Impower, the trailblazers of the renewable energy industry. By drastically increasing their dependence on solar as an energy source, this solar project will result in minimising 22 211 tons of CO₂ over the lifetime of the project.

About Impower

Impower has been a specialist engineering, procurement, and project management contractor (EPCM) within the solar and energy storage industry for over a decade. The company provides customised solar and storage energy solutions ranging between 100 kW and 10 MW in size to the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector. Engineered solutions using only first tier components and approved engineering methodologies coupled with their set of value-based principles, ensure that their systems are durable and consistently exceed expectations of their clients.

Impower has approximately 30 MW of active solar and battery storage sites located across the African continent, with a further 150 MW currently under development. Today, the company has grown to be a vertically integrated bespoke energy entity offering specialised project development, EPC and O&M services, with an explicit objective to extenuate energy poverty in Africa.

Contact Impower, Phone 021 300-0470, info@impower.co.za , https://impower.solar