09 July 2015

The shopping and leisure centre in Gauteng has continued its rooftop development: Having now tripled its photovoltaic output, the Clearwater Mall now operates South Africa’s largest solar rooftop. As before, KACO new energy Powador 60.0 TL3 solar inverters are delivering the power.

Last year the Clearwater Mall in Strubens Valley near Johannesburg had already begun to cover a portion of its electricity needs from about 500 kilowatts of photovoltaic output. This approach functioned so well that the management of the mall decided just half a year later to extend it to the maximum stage of expansion. So, since June 2015 a 1,600 kilowatt photovoltaic system on the rooftop of the shopping mall has been supplying electricity for self-use to over 250 shops, restaurants, cinemas and sports centres.

The second expansion stage also relies completely on KACO new energy Powador 60.0 TL3 solar PV inverters. Thanks to this threefold increased output, the Clearwater Mall has now covered about one third of its 5 megawatt installed load from photovoltaic, and holds the record of being South Africa’s largest solar rooftop.

Christoph Heinermann, Managing Director of KACO new energy South Africa stated: Clearwater Mall is an example of how convincing photovoltaic can be when everything is done properly. Thanks to the exemplary construction work of our partner Solareff and the continuously high degree of efficiency of our inverters, the yield is correct and thus fully justifies our customer’s business case. That made their decision to embark on the second stage of expansion all the easier."