Volkswagen South Africa
As the installation is on the rooftop of the engine plant which accommodates over one hundred employees, safety played an important role in the choice of PV supplier. SolarEdge systems come with built-in SafeDC™, and comply with VDE-AR-E-2100-712 safety standards. This requires that DC voltage is automatically reduced to a touch-safe level within 15 seconds if a building is disconnected from the grid, or the inverter is turned off, so that maintenance workers or first-responders will not be exposed to the risk of direct contact with high-voltage DC cables. As SafeDC is integral to the system, no additional hardware or fireproof constructional measures are required, leading to increased safety and a reduction of installation costs. In addition, SolarEdge inverters have builtin protection designed to mitigate the effects of some arcing faults that may pose a risk of fire, in compliance with the UL1699-B arc detection standard
Murray Thalrose
/ Operations Officer for the main contractor, Blackwood PowerDesign and Installation
- The saw tooth roof of the facility presented considerable challenges
- The roof has multiple extrusions, and achieving the targeted energy yield with traditional string inverters using the agreed-upon design would have been difficult
Advanced Monitoring for Maximum Power
- Integrated with the plant’s IT and energy management system, the SolarEdge monitoring platform tracks module performance in real-time, facilitating efficient preventative and corrective maintenance to ensure long-term optimal system performance
- By choosing SolarEdge, VWSA has ensured maximum power harvesting from each module to maximize lifetime PV production
- The primary driver for VWSA to invest in a solar installation was to offset the electricity expenses incurred in operating the manufacturing plant on a threeshift basis
- Increasing energy stability, and reducing delays and production losses caused by load shedding were also important motivations
- In addition, the company wanted to support its sustainability objectives by reducing CO2 emissions
Why SolarEdge
- VWSA sought well-known, highly reputed PV suppliers with a strong global experience
- Their top priority was reliability and a long warranty period, and this, along with the ability to increase yield to reduce the ROI period of the project, were important factors in selecting SolarEdge
- VWSA aims for ROI within 4.5 years
Mr. Chapman
/ Project Leader for VWSA
