redT energy announced that two of its 5-40kWh energy storage systems have arrived at a customer's site in Johannesburg, South Africa.
These units represent a first step into Africa for the Company and the ongoing progress of redT’s market seeding programme, a strategy which involves placing 18 storage units into 12 key customer applications across different regions, all of which have strong demand potential for energy storage.
The units have been purchased by a South African renewable energy developer and will be connected to a 20kW solar array at a residential development in Alberton, Johannesburg South.
The redT units will provide two primary services; time-shifting of excess PV energy captured during the day for use at night, and back-up power during scheduled and unscheduled grid outages. System commissioning will take place later in the year, in-line with property development schedules.
With weak grid infrastructure across the continent resulting in many businesses and individuals looking to safeguard their supply through the use of effective energy storage, this is the first time redT has shipped its patented energy storage systems to Africa, a region the Company sees as a key future market for energy storage.
The applications for redT’s technology in Africa are wide ranging, from working alongside grid-connected solar to coupling with diesel assets in off-grid applications within the mining, commercial or hospitality sectors, where units provide blackout support for essential industry during frequent grid outages.
South Africa’s on-grid potential energy storage market is vast. Renewable generation of 5GW has now been approved and this figure is targeted to be 17GW by 2030.
Energy storage can be coupled with renewables to provide secure power for on-grid applications, however providing firm renewable power is also vitally important for the sub Saharan African off-grid market, where the market opportunities are even larger.
Over 645 million Africans currently have no access to energy, and the recent widespread adoption of solar has opened up a huge market opportunity for redT’s robust, modular long-duration storage, which is an ideal solution to unlock firm renewable energy in off-grid markets.
This large residential development customer order is in addition to redT’s other market seeding unit planned for the Thaba Eco hotel, announced 18 March 2015.
This project has been working through location planning approval with respect to the renewable power development, and as a result of this delay, a new redT GEN2 unit will be delivered to the site once planning approval is gained.
redT CEO Scott McGregor said: "We are pleased to announce our first unit sales into Africa. This is a core growth area for the commercial sale of our energy storage systems and we believe redT’s units will help the continent unlock the potential of its renewable energy sources to provide firm power, bringing increased energy security to Africa.
"These two sales also form an important part of our continued market seeding strategy. These are the eighth and ninth market seeding applications and will provide us with valuable market information which will help drive product development."