Provest Group, a leading provider of services to the mining, industrial, and construction sectors, has successfully completed the installation of a solar energy system at its Steelpoort plant. The project was designed to improve power security at the plant, minimise production losses due to unplanned power outages, and significantly reduce the plant’s carbon footprint.

In recent years, the Steelpoort plant, like many others across South Africa, has faced ongoing challenges resulting from load shedding and unexpected power outages. The plant experienced 120 hours of power outages, equivalent to 15 production days in 2023. This translated to approximately R4.5 million of lost revenue for the year.

In addition to the rising costs of electricity, the plant had to rely on rented diesel generators as an alternative source of energy to power its operations. The cumulative effect of load shedding and power outages meant that Steelpoort had to use 2,120 litres of fossil fuels to power its generators, which further contributed to the emissions of the plant. Last year alone, the plant consumed 56.545 MWh of coal-powered electricity, resulting in approximately 52.02 tons of CO2 emissions.

“Load shedding pushed us to explore alternative energy solutions,” says Martin Kubyane, Plant Manager at Provest Group. “Our reliance on diesel generators contributed to increased carbon emissions. However, we recognised that with a solar installation we would be able to secure our power supply, reduce our dependence on the grid and ensure that we can continue to meet our production targets, while also reducing our carbon emissions. As a responsible organisation, the business case was very clear for us.”

The solar project began in June 2023 when Provest appointed Pienaar & Erwee Engineers to support with a comprehensive energy consumption and cost analysis and report. Their report informed Provest business case as well as the design of the ultimate solar energy system. In March of this year, Provest started sourcing service providers and appointed Rolling Snow Ball Holdings.

The solar project consisted of the implementation of a 50kWh system for its plant operations and a separate 30kWh system for the office operations. In total, the system consists of 128 Canadian solar panels, a 50KW Deye inverter, six 5KW Luxpower inverters, ten 5.12kWh HV Deye batteries, and six 5.12kW stage 1 Volta batteries. The total capital investment was R1.5 million.

“Rolling Snow Ball was professional throughout the implementation and has provided us with significant after sales support. From start to finish, it took two weeks to install with a total of six weeks to optimise our environment,” says Kubyane. 

“Though the installation team has worked on larger projects in the past, they were very complementary in saying that our installation was one of the best projects they have had the pleasure of working on, which I credit to how we ran the whole project,” says Kubyane. “We were well prepared before ground was broken and had taken every step to ensure that all health and safety compliance requirements were in place and all legislative requirements were met, which enabled an efficient and speedy installation.”

Rolling Snow Ball adhered to the highest quality standards and stayed within budget. The system is expected to have a payback period of just 1.7 years, a significant improvement compared to the industry average of up to 9 years.

“The successful implementation of this solar project is set to save Provest more than R50,000 per month on generator hire, not including the cost of diesel itself, and offset the risk of loss of production due to unexpected power outages. Furthermore, the move to solar energy will prevent an estimated 52.02 tonnes of carbon emissions annually, reflecting Provest’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact,” says Kubyane.

The solar installations at its Steelpoort plant enabled Provest to demonstrate the Group’s commitment to driving operational efficiency and sustainability in everything it does. 

“This project is a testament to our values of Care, Professionalism, Reliability, and Innovation. By embracing solar energy, we are not only securing the future success of our business but also demonstrating our commitment to the environment and contributing to a sustainable future,” says Funani Mojono, Chief Executive Officer of Provest Group.

About Provest Group

Provest is a leading provider of quality services to the mining, industrial and construction sectors, specialising primarily in Platinum, Chrome, and Manganese. Our comprehensive service portfolio spans exploration, drilling, equipment maintenance, and resource optimisation, where our team comprises of seasoned professionals with extensive industry experience, setting industry benchmarks in safety, efficiency, and sustainability on projects across Southern Africa. With an earned reputation for excellence, our values of Care, Professionalism, Reliability and Innovation underpin our commitment to our employees, clients and their projects, and the communities we engage with. For more information about Provest, please visit www.provestgroup.co.za.