iKaya Primary School is the second school in Stellenbosch to go green and partially off-grid thanks to a partnership with Stellenbosch University (SU), the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) and other partners.
The brand-new photovoltaic (PV) system was switched on at the Khayamandi school last Wednesday (27 September) with various special guests witnessing the momentous occasion. The installation of the system will enable the school’s administrative wing to switch from the Eskom grid seamlessly during bouts of load shedding, while new power-saving lights will see the school save about R30 000 on its electricity bill annually.
Principal Thandi Gxekwa said as a school the school is located in a very poor community, she is immensely grateful for this initiative. “You have made our lives easier and I believe we will see a lot of improvements in the school, even in our curriculum,” she pointed out.
The SU Engineering Faculty, Department of Social Impact and the WCED started the initiative to fund piloting Internet of Things (IoT) energy-management and lighting-efficiency retrofits at 75 no-fee schools in the province in 2017. This has helped schools save on their electricity bills by installing smart meters to monitor usage and retrofitting them with energy-saving lighting.
The first school to benefit from this PV system installation project was Cloetesville Primary School – known as the Green School – which received a 7,5 kW PV system, generating approximately 14 MWh (14 000 units) of electricity per year, negating almost 13 tons of CO2 annually and saving R20 000 per year while selling electricity back to the grid (“Die Groen Skool kry eie sonkrag”, Eikestadnuus, 18 August 2022).
David Maynier, provincial education minister, said the challenge is to find a scalable solution for the province’s 1 542 public schools to install similar solutions for electricity savings and efficiency. “iKaya Primary is one of 10 schools that will benefit from improved energy efficiency and reliability as part of the project,” he said. “The department will fund the remaining seven schools at a cost of R3,5 million, and SU is providing R1 million in funding for the systems at three of the schools.
“I have put forward a challenge to our partners to find a scalable solution for more of our schools, so that teaching and learning can continue in the Western Cape, even when Eskom turns off the lights.”
Being instrumental in this project, Prof Thinus Booysen, chairperson of the IoT in SU’s Engineering Department, said it’s a privilege for SU to help make a difference in schools and communities that are struggling financially. “We know that not all schools are created equal, and therefore we try to make a difference with this project and where we can, with the help of partners, install PV to help keep the crucial lights on for the schools to function.”
Dr Leslie van Rooi, Senior Director of Social Impact and Transformation at SU, said the university had contributed just over R1 million to the project. “We do this because we believe in the possibilities of our local schools and because we know our collaboration, support and learning together are fundamental to SU and our town’s possibilities. The university is very grateful we can join forces in this way. We are looking forward to taking the partnership with the WCED and other stakeholders further so we can make sure the lives and future of our children are brighter.”
Jason Samuels of SU’s Industrial Engineering Department, who recently received his PhD under the supervision of Booysen, and his team from the SU spinout company GreenX. This involved working pro-bono for SU on this project, spending the past two years covering many distances to conduct extensive energy audits at various schools to determine how it can retrofit them with energy-saving lights and meters to measure and manage their usage.
Their solution lends itself to scalability while incorporating each school’s individual load profile at a low cost. The team was responsible for the PV installation at iKaya Primary.
“We have been working with schools across the Western Cape for more than two years and we understand the challenges,” Samuels stated. “We have also created a solution that works for each school at cost-effective rates.
“My team and I, with the support from the education department and SU, are ready to take on the challenge of rolling this project out to all the schools in the province. We welcome schools to get into contact with us to start their process. We will also look for private partners to support us in this endeavour that will greatly benefit society.”
