Renewable Energy

Renewable energy

With the installation of a 60 kilowatt facility, the initial step in the development \ of a 50 MegaWatt plant, the game reserve will further its contribution to environmentally friendly tourism. The 60 kW facility will be a Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) system, with panels that move to track the sun, a first for South Africa. The new solar panel facility will be housed at ARC (Aquila Rehabilitation & Conservation Centre) canned lions which Aquila had rescued from certain death and the cheetahs that will be part of a cheetah breeding programme would literally be walking next to the solar panels.

With many hours of abundant sunshine in the beautiful Cape Karoo, Aquila is a perfect site for the use of solar energy. A deal has been signed with Concentrix Solar, a leading German supplier of Concentrator Photovoltaic systems who have been active in South Africa since 2008. It is the company's first power facility in the country. Between Aquila and Concentrix there will also be a skills development programme to train over 200 local residents of Touws River in security, construction and maintenance of the solar plants. This will add to the ongoing skills development programmes already in execution at Aquila in the construction, tourism and game ranging fields.