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DeBeers Namibia published a tender for the supply and installation of a weather monitoring system at the Oranjemund Airport. CTS was awarded the tender based on price, knowledge of the meteorological measuring equipment as well as quality of products. At time of installation the station was the most advanced aviation weather station in Namibia.

Technical Details of the system installed:

• Ceilometer at end of runway 20 to measure cloud height at three levels up to 7,500m
• Runway Visibility and Present Weather sensor at stop end of runway 20.
• Present weather sensor monitors 7 different types of precipitation
• visibility sensor takes background luminescence into account
• Wind speed and direction a touchdown runway 20.
• Wind speed and direction, rain as well as barometric pressure at stop end runway 20
• AviMet server for processing of all data
• 3 workstations spread along the buildings for weather monitoring and supervision purposes
• ATIS voice system transmitting on aviation frequency as well as telephone dial in the current weather conditions

All communication between the equipment and the AviMet server is based on wireless transmission to reduce cabling costs.

The weather information can be picked up rough 100 NM away from the airport by all approaching aircraft.

When A La Mer Hotel in Swakopmund decided to expand, they approached CTS with a unique challenge: to create a functional laundry that was both energy and water efficient, and would also fit into a small space, while being whisper quiet, so as not to disturb any guests. In addition, the laundry has to perform excellently, producing quality wash, tumbling and ironing results. Only one brand came to mind: Miele.

Miele recently launched new bench mark machines, which have short program cycles, excellent spin performance, a redesigned patented honeycomb drum and have low consumption values. A La Mer Hotel was the first in Namibia to purchase these new machines.

CTS installed washer extractors with water recovery units, as well as automatic dosing systems, to ensure the best quality wash, every time. The tumble drier has an air recycling system, saving up to 60% of energy. And with a matching drying ironer, optimum finishing results are achieved. Small accessories made this laundry a complete turn key solution.

A 7,3 kWp off-grid PV system was installed at the farm Heinrichsfelde in the Aus area with a Lithium-ion battery. The system is able to power an entire farmhouse. Remote monitorng and supervision is included.

System Specifications are:

• 24 x 305W Renesola PV modules
• 2x Victron MPPT 150/85
• 1x Victron Quattro 48/10000
• 1x BlueNova Lithium-ion battery 48V-24kWh
• Roof mounted with structure for IBR roof sheeting
• AC surge and lightning protection

After successful completion of the Omusati off grid electrification project, CTS was successful in winning the bid for the second phase of containerized PV solutions for the Kunene region. With the experience gained from phase 1, the containers were optimized in many ways. The final design consisted custom build 20ft container by Namspace in Swakopmund.

Sites that were electrified in the Kunene region are:

• Otjitjekua School
• Otjiu School
• Otjiu Hostel
• Epupa School

The project included the following:

• Upgrading of all government building wiring as per national standard for 4 sites in the Kunene region:
• Manufacture, supply and install container power units for these sites.

The power containers consisted of ca 2.8kW of PV modules installed on the roof as well as 4,500 Ah of battery capacity. Five kVA inverter charger and two 70A BlueSolar Charge regulator all from Victron Energy complete the system. Remote monitoring of all sites is achieved by using the Victron Color Control GX unit.

The University of Hamburg approached CTS directly with the request to quote and subsequently manufacture and install 3 automatic weather stations at:

• Khorixas
• Kaoko Otavi
• Okangwati

Once again, satellite communication has been chosen, this time not because of GSM not being available, but to reduce future cost of the stations as satellite communication for these stations has got no costs associated.

In addition to the basic data measured:

• Wind speed
• Wind direction
• Humidity
• Air Temperature
• Irradiance
• Barometric pressure
• Ground Temperature
• Rain
• Leaf wetness

The stations are equipped with a WLAN interface. This allows the connection of 49″ SmartTV to be connected to each station to display the current weather inside close by offices.

Based on our excellent service and knowledge we have rendered to the Botswana Meteorological Department as well as University of Hamburg, CTS was able to secure the 2nd Phase of the manufacture, supply and installation of automatic weather stations in Botswana.

The stations supplied to make use of satellite communication due to the extreme remoteness of the sites, these were:

• Mababe (Savuti Marsh)
• Tubu (Okavango)
• Baines Drift (Eastern Botswana)
• Xade (Central Kalahari Game Park)
• Ngwaltle (Western Botswana)

These stations are not located at any Meteorological Department property, thus fences had to be erected for protection against animals.

Station design is based on our well proven tripod mast with all relevant sensors and a CR1000 logger as the processing unit. Data is transmitted at fixed timeslots allocated by EUMETSAT (Germany) on an hourly basis. Satellite transmission is based on a fire and forget principle, thus no remote maintenance can be done.

Weather data can be found at: http://www.sasscalweathernet.org .