Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront goes green

Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, one of the most popular shopping malls in the country, is going green.

The mall is joining the enviro-friendly trend by installing solar panels on its roofs. They will produce up to 1640000kWh of electricity a year.

The panels will cut the mall’s carbon emissions by 1610t.

It expects savings of about R1.6-million in the first year and a further 10% to 15% in future, depending on the electricity price.

V&A’s management said: “The average daily production of this system will be 449kWh, which is the energy needed to supply one day’s worth of electricity to 310 households.”

Colin Devenish, the executive manager for operations at the V&A Waterfront, said the installation cost R19-million.

Black River Office Park, in Observatory, announced last year that, after installing its solar system, it would generate 1.2MW and sell some to the City of Cape Town.

Devenish said the V&A Waterfront would not be selling surplus power.

“It will all be consumed by us,” he said.

Gregor Kuepper, managing director of Solar World Africa, the company that manufactured the V&A’s solar panels, said the system had a guaranteed life of 25 years.

“This installation is significant in that it will become the beacon for solar rooftop applications in the commercial sector across South Africa,” he said.

According to the V&A, the first phase of the project will be completed at the end of next month and the entire project in early 2016.