SACS is going solar and saving thousands of rands in the process, with the installation of the clean-energy system at its Rosedale boarding house.
Deputy principal Barry van Selm said choosing to install the solar system had been a no-brainer.
“SACS has become very aware of its carbon footprint, so a renewable energy option was important to us. In the past five years, we have also seen huge increases in electricity tariffs so we needed to find a sustainable way of bringing those costs down.”
Head of marketing and sales at Energy Partners Home Solutions, Cala van der Westhuizen, said schools with boarding houses and lots of weekend activity could benefit from solar because they consumed most of their energy during the day’s peak solar hours.
The system installed at Sacs, he said, would generate excess power that the school could possibly sell back to the City of Cape Town.
The system is able to track the school’s power usage in real time.
“Being able to track the system’s energy production is very interesting and allows us to see the results,” said Mr Van Selm. “Our first electrical bill has not arrived yet, but based on what we have seen from the monitoring tool, our use of electricity from the grid has been cut by about one third which amounts to a saving of around R75 000 at the current electricity tariffs.
“We are very excited about the results we have seen so far and looking forward to reducing our carbon footprint and electricity bills even further in the near future.”
