382 Jan Smuts avenue in South that belongs to Tower Property Fund in Johannesburg recently received a solar PV installation which comes with a bank of 300 highly efficient solar panels on its roof. These panels will supply close to 26% of the building’s power requirements.
The project is managed by Spire Sustainable Solutions, a subsidiary of Spire Property Management, on behalf of the Tower Property Fund. Spire Sustainable Solutions’ managing director Simon Pension, says that initial results are very impressing after the system started operating at the end of February 2016.
The 382 Jan Smuts solar PV installation is closely monitored through a weather station installed at the top of the roof and feeds results directly through to an online portal that enables Spire Property Management to check the performance of the system at any time.
Beside the solar installation, 382 Jan Smuts has also received a lighting retrofit and undertook a functional renovation and maintenance that involved among other things facelift of the façade, new bathrooms in the three storey office block in addition to a complete repaint for the entire building.
Apart from the installation at 382 Jan Smuts, other building structures that follow in Spire’s portfolio have also gotten solar installations. These include the Cape Quarter and the DeVille Shopping Centre in the Western Cape, together with at 6-8 Sturdee Avenue in Johannesburg. The installations will supply approximately US$84000 worth of electricity during the first year of operation.
“The value of this power will increase in direct proportion to electricity price increases,” says Simon Stubbings, property manager for 382 Jan Smuts. “This power is resold to the tenants and so will no longer need to be purchased from Eskom.”
Spire Sustainable Solutions used the services of renowned installation company, Weave Energy, to partake the installation at 382 Jan Smuts and the DeVille Centre and 6-8 Sturdee Avenue..”
