Resort panels up to achieve cleaner, greener, more efficient and affordable solar power

Sun City is going to great heights in its bid to one day achieve a great share of greener energy, thanks to an investment to date of over R26-million.

With all available space on the roof of Sun Central now covered by solar panels, the resort has lifted its sights to the roof at The Palace, and the Sun City hotel.

Brett Hoppé, General Manager of Sun City said, “Conventional installation methods such as cranes would have inconvenienced our guests, so given the scale of the project, we decided that airlifting the equipment was the best and quickest solution. At its highest point The Palace is 70m high, so lifting 1 191 solar panels and the supporting steel structures onto the roof is no mean feat. The hefty panels were packed into crates, with each one weighing just under a ton.”

Hoppé emphasised that the roll out of the panels forms part of a broader, phased environmental strategy. “Sun City is an enormous property with many moving parts to power up, but we believe our ground-breaking project not only reduces our Resort’s demand and consumption of energy, but that it will also meet Sun International’s broader environmental commitment.

“Solar is beneficial to our broader community as the less power we draw from the grid the more is available to others, it works for our guests – especially those travelling from overseas – as they want to know that they are not increasing their own environmental footprint when they stay at Sun City, and it works for our own bottom line. Since June last year we have completed the first two phases of the project and have already realised a financial saving of approximately R3.1-million for the period July 2023 to May 2024.

The installation has been planned in several phases. When this particular phase has been completed, demand from the resort on the national grid will drop by an estimated total of 2.25 MW.

Sun City Sustainability Manager Lwazi Mswelanto highlighted the resort’s wider objectives: “Our sustainability agenda is focused on not only shrinking our environmental footprint, but also on uplifting our surrounding communities. We work closely with all partners to ensure that members of our doorstep communities are employed, trained and upskilled to service the technology during the building, and after completion of the project. Sun City currently employs 18 community members through our solar project. For us it is critical to be able to give back to our community.”