South Africa’s Ratelberg Solar in Grabouw, owned by Two-a-Day employees, has awarded Technoserve the contract to install an additional 610kW to expand its footprint at Two-a-Day to a total 4.99MW energy provided by the sun.
According to Bernhard Kotze, Commercial Manager at Two-a-Day, the second phase was fully operational in 2021, generating electricity as expected and is a great investment that contributes to a greener environment.
According to Kotze, the price of solar has increased exponentially due to demand and exchange-rate increases over the last two years. The second phase is valued at approximately R28 million.
“The environmental savings were important to us,” he says explaining that by using solar they have annualised savings of 1,880 tons of coal and a carbon-emission saving of 1,600 tons. In practice these savings, and the atmospheric carbon sequestration, may be equivalent to the impact of 484,380 trees planted,” Kotze ends.
Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing is the largest exporter of South African apples and pears, and owned by the growers at Two-a-Day and Ceres Fruit Growers. Tru-Cape Managing Director, Roelf Pienaar, says that environmental savings are as important to the growers as to Tru-Cape customers in 105 countries. “Each step closer to being less reliant on fossil fuels is a step in the right direction,” Pienaar ends.
