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MTN Launches Africa's First Concentration Solar Cooling System in Johannesburg.

14th July 2014 One of the things that makes EL Reports happy is organizations making sure that their operations are kind to the environment, and so we’re pretty pleased with this report that MTN has stepped up to do its bit.

The organization has launched Africa’s first Concentrating Solar Cooling System in its Head office in Johannesburg. The system uses a technology called Linear Fresnel Concentrating Solar Power and how it works is pretty interesting.

242 solar mirrors covering a total area of 484 square metres, use energy generated by the sun to produce pressurised water at 180 degrees Celsius. The hot water powers an absorption chiller which produces chilled water and the chilled water is circulated into the data centre to cool the IT equipment. It has a peak cooling capacity of 330 kW. Because water is the refrigerant, the system has zero global warming and ozone depleting potential.

To make sure that the mirrors get the most of the sunlight, they follow the movement of the sun, using GPS technology and the date and time. When it is raining, the automatically move into a self-cleaning position and when it is cloudy, the mirrors move into an automatic stow position.

It seems like a win-win solution on every side guys and we look forward to seeing MTN deploy this system around the continent.

We’re staying in South Africa for the cheering report that the nation has been announced one of the top 10 solar energy users in the world. South Africa joins the United States, China, Germany, India and Spain and in the 10th position, is the only African nation on the top 10 list.

South Africa has 15 solar plants that contribute about 503 MW to the country’s electricity grid; now bear in mind that these solar plants are only Phase 1 of the country’s renewable energy program. The country has 64 more plants in the process of launching to produce an additional 3,900 megawatts of energy and is already preparing to kick off Phase 4.

Way to go South Africa!

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