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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.

Central Technical Supplies was approached by the University of Stellenbosch to take part in a tender to supply a solar resource measurement station to the Namibia University of Science and Technology in Windhoek.

We were successful in winning the tender. The station is based on the Kipp and Zonen Solys 2 sun tracker with CMP 10 Pyranometer and CHP1 Pyrheliometer.

The station is based on the CR1000 logger from Campbell Scientific and measures wind speed and direction as well as ambient temperature, humidity and rain in addition to the solar resource data.

CTS was awarded the tender in July 2011 for Katima Mulilo’s Hospital laundry. The scope of the work included the supply, manufacture and assembly, delivery to site, installation, testing, commissioning and maintenance of laundry equipment.

Safety is born of experience. In the field of clinical practice, medical know-how and professional laundry care ensure optimum treatment and care of patients. For this, systematic cleaning, disinfection, drying and sterilization of linen and operating garments are prerequisites for avoiding risk to both patients and staff.

Katima Mulilo’s Hospital has to process over 1 ton of laundry per day. Our high speed washer extractors have a spin factor of 830rpm, greatly reducing tumbling time. With built in soap dispensers, the correct amount of soap is used each time, and the perforated lifting ribs mean more mechanical action and lower water consumption. The high speed washers significantly reduce water and electricity consumption, and still ensure hygienically clean laundry.

Miele offer rotary ironers with roller diameters ranging from 210 to 500 mm. Aluminium heater plates instead of steel guarantee an excellent distribution of heat and considerably reduced heating up times. The foot control ensures that the roller can be easily stopped, eg. for steaming.

A pneumatic lifting device creates a high pressure ironing action for an excellent finish. Katima Mulilo’s Hospital has the largest Miele rotary ironers in Namibia.

Central Technical Supplies was once again awarded the tender to electrify 4 remote localities in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. Custom build containers where installed on site with SMA Sunny Island 8.0 inverter installed. In addition the offered lead acid battery technology has been replaced by state of the art lithium batteries reducing system maintenance. The use of AC coupled technology did allow for the SunnyBoy solar inverter to be in installed inside relevant buildings on which PV modules are mounted. All components are interlinked by means of wireless technology to allow for remote monitoring where GSM signal is of sufficient strength. System sizes vary form 3kW, 12kW, 15kW to 20kW of PV power while inverters are as much as 3 in a single phase cluster.

Sites that were electrified are:

• Nhoma
• Aasvoel Nes
• Kanovlei
• Grashoek

Central Technical Supplies (Pty) Ltd. – Geiger Engineering (CTS) was approached by Farmers Meat Market Mariental to design, supply and install a solar water heating system with the aim to reduce the monthly diesel consumption as two diesel boilers are operated to heat water up to 82 deg. C for production purposes.

The water requirements of the abattoir are as follows:

1. 2,000 liter/hour @ 45 C°
2. 3,000 liter/hour @ 60 C°
3. 500 liter/hour @ 82 C°

This adds up to a total daily water requirement at 60 deg. C of roughly 25,000 liter.

The system is design such as to preheat water from 18 deg. C to between 50 deg. C and 60 deg. C before supplying the diesel boiler system, thus reducing runtime and diesel consumption of the diesel boilers. A 20,000L stainless steel tank (non pressure tank) manufactured locally according to CTS design, acts as the buffer tank for the daily water requirement. A total of 120 flat plate collectors supplied by Solsquare Namibia with a total surface area of 300 m2 are connected by means of a 450kW Alfa Laval flat plate heat exchanger to the water tank.

A set of two Calpeda circulation pumps connected to Danfoss variable speed drives and a timer circuit guarantees at all times that the heat from the collectors is effectively transported to the water tank. Flow as well as temperature monitoring on all four ports of the heat exchanger make it possible to determine the instantaneous as well as accumulated kWh produced from the collector field.

Furthermore additional heating energy is obtained from the ammonia refrigeration plant. A heat exchanger is installed on the ammonia discharge side before the existing cooling towers to be able to heat the water during night time as well, as this is the time when the refrigeration plant runs at full capacity to cool down the newly slaughtered meat in the cold rooms. Again flow control and temperature monitoring on the hot water side of the heat exchanger accurately indicate heating energy obtained from the refrigeration plant.
A total of four pump sets have been installed and pumps are cycled on a 24 hour basis in automatic mode. Should at any given time a pump fail, the system can be switched to manual mode to be able to repair the pump without system down time and a resulting increase in diesel consumption.

All systems components are sized such as to allow for future heating capacity upgrades should it be required.

After a year of operation, the plant is performing better than expected and the client is able to safe nearly N$ 60,000 per month on diesel costs, bringing the payback period of the entire system down to below two years. This clearly shows that solar energy, be it for heating or for electricity production, surely is the way forward for a cleaner and greener future for generations to come. CTS is proud to be part of making Namibia and the world a better place for our grandchildren to live in.

CTS removed old and obsolete laundry equipment and installed new machines.

The installed equipment consisted of:

1. 2 x new Primus FS40 high speed washer extractors
2. 2 x Maytag energy saving tumble dryers
3. 1 x Miele through-feed drying ironers
4. inculding laundry trolleys, ironing trolleys and other small accessories