Hyundai Automotive South Africa has reinforced its commitment to investing in environmentally-conscious initiatives, introducing solar power at its Bedfordview head office and several of its Gauteng dealerships.
The South Korean multinational car manufacturer says it is on a journey to make the operations of Hyundai in SA more environmentally-friendly by reducing its carbon footprint to promote a carbon-neutral future.
According to a statement, the aim of the solar photovoltaic project is to circumvent load-shedding, and reduce the electricity bill and consumption of Hyundai Automotive SA and its dealer network.
The solar project at the head office and some dealerships in Gauteng cost R14 million, notes the company.
At the head office, more than 240 solar panels have been fitted on the roof of the building, delivering 110kW on a typical spring sunshine day.
Stanley Anderson, sales and operations director at Hyundai Automotive SA, explains: “Due to the frequency of power interruptions brought about by load-shedding and the cost of running diesel-burning generators, we investigated the benefits of installing solar power.
“Another aim of this project is to run our operations on clean power as far as possible, which fits in with one of the core values of our brand.”
The project follows the installation of a solar energy system at Hyundai Automotive SA’s Parts Distribution Centre (PDC) in Germiston in 2019 and early 2020, to reduce its carbon footprint and its dependency on municipal power, and thus also minimise exposure to load-shedding.
The system at Hyundai’s PDC includes batteries for power storage, but the company points out the installation at the head office and East Rand dealerships might add batteries only in the second phase of the project.
“We are busy with a feasibility exercise to see what the most cost-efficient solution would be to install batteries in order to store power, which would considerably reduce the use of a generator,” says Anesh Parhanse, GM of properties at Hyundai Automotive SA, tasked with the implementation of the solar power project.
“We do not yet store power at the head office and dealerships in the East Rand, but we feed electricity back into the power grid when there is a surplus. All installations are grid-tied and generator-tied. When there is load-shedding and not enough sunshine, the generator would kick in.
Between 10am and 3pm, the company is off the Eskom grid 90% of the time, when there is enough sunshine. On a bright sunny day with clear skies, it is off the grid completely, says Parhanse.
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