In February, the Tortilis Camp project in Kenya celebrated its first six months in operation. Owned by Cheli and Peacock, Tortilis Camp is a safari camp in East Africa and is, according to the claims of its owners, now fully-powered by solar. That solar was installed by Harmonic Systems and replaced the two generators that had been used. 190 panels were installed on site, with predictions that they would supply up to 77,400 KWh annually. Battery storage is an 11-ton Hoppecke bank. Financing for the project was set in place by NVI Energy through its Solar4Africa platform. Launched in 2014, S4A's approach to tackling the problem of financing is to supply a "one stop shop" for industrial and commercial customers wishing to have solar installed. Elizabeth Muir, head of communications and human resources at NVI Energy, says that there were not many companies across Africa supplying this kind of service. "If you are a flower farmer in Kenya and want solar, you may be put off by huge upfront costs, issues of affordability, deciding on who you want to implement it, maintenance, etc. We provide those solutions through three approaches. We have 'pay by solar,' where someone rents to own the system where we ask only a minimal upfront cost and take on up to 85% of the price of building. The customer pays for the power produced, and then ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...