Resource World Magazine

56 www.resourceworld.com D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 5 ALTERNATIVE E N E R G Y WITH A CAPACITY to generate 1MW of power, which can rise to 6MW on a good day, the solar park project at Williamson Tea Company in Kenya's Rift Valley is the biggest in East Africa. Williamson Tea is a company that blends, grows and processes tea in the Rift Valley region of the country, about 286 km (177 miles) north of Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Commissioned in May this year, the solar system will help the tea company drastically reduce its power cost, accord- ing to Guy Lawrence, director of East African Solar, a company contracted to put up the system. The electricity cost for processing a kilo- gram of tea increased by more than 79% from US $0.06 in 2001 to $0.11 in 2010. Therefore, to become more cost effective without compromising the quality of its products, Williamson Tea approached East African Solar – the largest com- mercial solar installation company in the region – to see whether any power efficiencies can be made by adopting solar. "We spent some time on their farm and found out that solar can make a difference and we effectively designed a 1MW solar plant for them, which would offset the monthly power consumed by 28-30%," explained Lawrence. Yingli solar modules, multi-crystalline silicon solar cells were used, which was a ground installation system. Galvanized mountings were concreted in the ground and the panels installed between 1 and 1.5 metres off the ground. The whole solar park covers an area of 13,000 square metres and was completed at a cost of approximately US $2 million. One of the most impressive features employed by this particular solar system is in the use of a technology known as the Solar Fuel Saver (SFS). The technol- ogy guarantees nonstop power generation, in the face of low radiation levels during cloudy or foggy weather, for example. It is one of the world's first such systems to be installed. The technology was developed by Solarcentury, a company credited with installing solar on more sites than any other company in the industry. Dr. Daniel Davies, the head of Solarcentury East Africa and the technical expert on the SFS technology, explained that solar power generation at Williamson Tea is designed to work in two ways. It will work with and in parallel to the grid, in which case the technology helps reduce the amount of electricity purchased. It will also work with standby generators, which ensures that the amount of diesel used is reduced. "Since you have two sources of power providing the load, the critical role played by the SFS lies in its ability to manage the Employees of the East Africa Solar Company installing panels at the Williamson Tea Company in Kenya, Africa. Photo courtesy of East African Solar Company Biggest solar project in east Africa in operation by Geoffrey Kamadi

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