{"id":22314,"date":"2021-03-29T09:56:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T07:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/?p=22314"},"modified":"2021-03-29T09:56:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T07:56:48","slug":"largest-private-solar-farm-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/29\/largest-private-solar-farm-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Largest private solar farm South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A 180 Hectare Pecan Nut Orchard in Hartswater, South Africa has solved its irrigation problem virtually overnight by installing the region’s largest off-grid low-voltage solar farm.<\/p>\n

The problem was not access to water – 1200km of canals constructed as part of the Vaalharts Irrigation Scheme supplies the water they need. But the electricity grid infrastructure in South Africa is unable to cope with demand and is subject to a rolling schedule of power shutdowns. Even when the supply is on, it is notoriously unstable.<\/p>\n

This farm waters its orchards in rows according to a timed irrigation schedule – a schedule which is cycled throughout the plantation. Water has to be ordered in advance from the Irrigation scheme and is channeled to the farm in time slots. If a power cut coincides with the water’s arrival the farm is unable to extract it; the water is lost, money is lost …the irrigation schedule is spoiled, and trees are left in drought conditions, devastating the harvest.<\/p>\n

Two systems provide 270kVA<\/h4>\n

The Hartswater Pecan Plant decided the time had come to make a major investment in private power – for which they turned to\u00a0Ecotrades Solar Power Systems<\/a>\u00a0– South African experts in domestic and industrial solar power. Ecotrades suggested a 270kVA private power supply divided into two separate power infrastructures to avoid voltage drops on the cable distribution network which runs to 4.5 kilometres!<\/p>\n

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Ecotrades qualified engineers benefit from continuous industry training.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ecotrades pre-installed the system in four insulated, air conditioned shipping containers – two for the battery banks, two for the inverters …carrying out the work on their own premises before transporting the valuable cargo securely to site in their own crane-trucks.<\/p>\n

Heavy duty bus bar<\/h4>\n

Izak Oosthuizen<\/em>, Managing Director of Ecotrades says: “One of the biggest challenges in this installation was battery balancing. The installation includes 336 batteries – all of which must be connected using identical cable lengths. Potentially there’s going to be a lot of slack cable. In the end we were able to solve the problem – for which we’d like to acknowledge the help from Victron Sales Manager Gerrit Tromp<\/em> – with an ergonomic battery arrangement, wired into some really heavy-duty bus bars 100mm wide, and 10mm thick.”\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The system comprises:<\/p>\n