The Western Cape is one of the places to be for renewable energy, and especially solar energy, right now. The City of Cape Town has called for funding proposals for City-owned renewable energy projects as it seeks to become a Carbon Neutral City by 2050. And the Western Cape provincial government’s Municipal Energy Resilience project is progressing steadily.
Due to their affordability and technological maturity, rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems continue to dominate the small-scale renewable sector. This is where Decentral Energy comes in.
At Decentral, we’re excited that the province is so open to solar PV systems, including small-scale embedded generation (SSEG). In fact, there are already several solar sites in the Western Cape that we have developed or are currently developing. These include projects in the mixed use sector, such as Viking Business Park in Epping, and the industrial sector, such as Mega Park in Bellville.
The Pick n Pay Family Store in Brackenfell is one of the most recent of our projects. This site, developed in partnership with Emergent Energy, was built at zero cost to the building owners, thanks to Decentral’s structured solar funding solution, which covers 100% of capital and operating expenditure.
The store now operates using renewable energy from this 250 kWp solar PV system, reducing its reliance on Eskom.
We look forward to funding more projects like this in the Western Cape in the future!
