Last week, the SunEx team had a very special visit and ribbon-cutting celebration at HTS Drostdy in Worcester to mark the energisation of the 470 kW solar-plus-700 kWh storage project, which now powers the school with clean, reliable electricity.
With this solar project now officially the largest to power a school in the Western Cape, it’s testament to the impact that’s possible when combining industry-leading solar expertise and capabilities, with a powerful network of trusted, enabling partners.
Using an innovative solar carport structure, the project covers more than half of the 120 year-old school’s energy needs. The integrated battery storage protects HTS Drostdy’s more than 1,000 students from the impacts of load shedding, including classrooms, labs, hostels and other facilities. The plant also enables the school to mitigate climate impacts by avoiding approximately 13,000 tonnes of carbon emissions in its 20 year lifetime.
As part of the intricate deployment process for this solar project, we worked closely with the team at HTS Drostdy to carefully understand their needs and priorities and then designed the project accordingly. We also facilitated funding from our trusted funding partner, CVE South Africa, who now own the solar project and will manage and operate it for its 20 year lifetime. We also managed the coordination across all other project stakeholders including the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), Worcester municipality and EPC partner, Dorman Energy.
Many of our ecosystem partners and project stakeholders joined us at the ribbon cutting celebration. Here is what they had to say about the project:
David Maynier, Minister of Education, Western Cape: “With the vast solar resources available to us in the Western Cape, we can make a profound positive impact on children’s education with solar power and energy storage. Not only can we create more resilient schools, protected from the harm of ongoing load shedding, and reduce energy costs, we can also bring a powerful lesson on sustainability and climate action right into the school environment.”
Louis Steijn, principal, HTS Drostdy: “HTS Drostdy prepares young people to positively transform the future. Deploying the solar plant and battery was an important strategic decision for us to put our learners first and ensure a reliable stream of clean electricity for cutting-edge classes like robotics, 3D design, coding and other technical subjects, as well as our hostels. Not to mention, seeing the plant in action is a learning opportunity in itself for our learners. Having SunEx as a trusted, enabling partner has been essential to the success of HTS Drostdy’s solar power journey.”
René Laks, General Manager, CVE South Africa: “By unlocking access to reliable renewable energy for education in South Africa, the HTS Drostdy solar-plus-storage project aligns with CVE’s ethos, putting people and the planet at the centre of tomorrow’s energy. We’re proud to be part of a project that raises the bar for what’s possible in solar power and battery storage for schools.”
Saul Wainwright, CEO, SunEx: “As the largest solar project for a school in the province, we are honoured that HTS Drostdy put their trust in SunEx to make this landmark solar and storage project a reality. We’re delighted to apply our team’s deep, world-class experience to make clean, resilient energy accessible, affordable and easy for schools and other organisations across South Africa.”
With our industry-leading expertise and global network of values-aligned funding partners, we’re proud to say that SunEx has now enabled simple, affordable and reliable clean energy for more than 80 organisations across South Africa, including more than 30 schools. Our solar projects have generated more than 22 gigawatt-hours of energy, avoiding more than 23,000 tonnes of carbon emissions from going into the atmosphere.
