Mechanical Technology April 2015

⎪ Innovative engineering ⎪

At a launch event held at MAN Truck & Bus South Africa’s assembly plant in Durban on March 17, 2015, the company announced the conversion of its Pinetown assembly plant to solar power. “One of the biggest challenges facing the economy right now is the reliable supply of energy by Eskom and it is great to see that some 53 years after MAN started in South Africa, we have made this significant step towards attaining a degree of self-reliance in terms of energy supply,” says managing director, Geoff du Plessis. MAN SA’s carbon-neutral Pinetown assembly plant

Above: Landmark events for 2014, according to Du Plessis included “the handover of 215 TGS units to Barloworld and 60 TGS units to Imperial Cargo”. Left: MAN’s Pinetown plant has 6 300 m 2 of PV panels installed on its roofing for a 580 kW system capable of generating approximately 810 000 kWh of power per annum – surplus to current plant consumption. but also to install skylights and thermal insulation material to reduce demand for electric lighting and to make our buildings cooler for our operators,” explains Kayser. Of the 10 000 m 2 of roofing cover- ing all the buildings at MAN’s Pinetown plant, 6 300 m 2 have been utilised to accommodate the PV installation. The 580 kW system is capable of generating approximately 810 000 kWh of power per annum, providing a surplus of energy that can be supplied to the metropolitan (eThekwini) grid. Alan Swart, managing director of Solaray, the company responsible for designing the R10-million PV system for MAN Pinetown says, “We sourced state- of-the-art equipment, including inverters and solar panels from Europe – which are able to generate power even in cloudy conditions – as well as mounting equip- ment from China. The PV system is cur- rently grid-tied but is capable of becoming either semi-grid tied or a completely off- grid system with the inclusion of a genset or battery system respectively.” The PV system is linked to a web- based monitoring system that reports dai- ly power consumption as well as electric- ity costs and CO 2 savings. Furthermore, the online reporting software also delivers exception reports, enabling Solaray, located just two kilometres away from

M AN Truck & Bus South Africa has officially an- nounced the conversion of its Pinetown assembly plant to solar power. The complete truck and bus-chassis assembly plant is now capable of operating entirely off solar energy and is not only the first 100% carbon-neutral truck production site in Africa, but also within MAN’s global production network. According to Heiko Kayser, head of production at the assembly plant, “instal- lation of the solar, or photovoltaic system, commenced in August 2014 and was completed in less than six months. The project forms part of MAN’s global climate strategy to reduce carbon emissions at its production sites in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America by 25% by 2020.” The MAN Climate Strategy vision commit the organisation to: ‘reduce CO 2 emissions at MAN sites by improving energy efficiency, using renewable en- ergy sources (solar, wind, geothermal),

generating energy using combined heat and power (CHP) plants, and through integrated energy-management technol- ogy and organization.’ Geoff du Plessis, managing director of MAN Truck & Bus in South Africa, confirms that this investment is not only a significant step in terms of our environmental commitment, but it also shows our long-term commitment to the region and its future. “Our products and services are all aimed to minimise their carbon footprint, and it is great to see that even our assembly plant contributes in this regard,” says du Plessis. With its abundant sunshine, Pinetown is a prime location to implement solar energy solutions and Kayser and his team procured expertise from KwaZulu-Natal to design and install the new photovoltaic (PV) system. “Prior to rolling out the PV project, we refurbished our entire roofing system at a cost of over R5-million to not only efficiently accommodate the solar panels,

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Mechanical Technology — April 2015