MTN South Africa is aiming to beat load shedding and reduce its carbon emissions with solar PV rooftop and carport installations.
The mobile telecommunications company, which aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040, said that it had issued a request for proposal this week to have the installations at its headquarters in Johannesburg. Net zero means that the emissions that are released will be offset by those that are removed or mitigated.
The company is adopting a four-phase approach to achieve its net zero target. The first relates to the solar PV rooftop and solar carports at its headquarters on 14th Avenue in Roodepoort, Gauteng. MTN plans to have the preferred bidders notified by December 2022.
The second phase will see a solar facility mounted on vacant land opposite its 14th Avenue campus. The third phase will have solar PV rooftop, and grounded projects rolled out at its other facilities. And the final phase involves wheeling renewable energy produced electricity from renewable energy independent power producers offsite. MTN did not give timelines for when the remaining phases would be implemented.
MTN SA CEO Charles Molapisi said that the programme would help MTN reduce its reliance on fossil-fuelled power while also assisting in managing the rolling power cuts or load shedding.
"Climate action is imperative to secure the future socioeconomic development of Africa. In South Africa, we acknowledge the importance of balancing the reduction of our impact on the environment with the need to connect more people to high-speed broadband," Molapisi said in a statement.
"Our focus is to reduce any unnecessary use of energy, create more energy efficiencies, increase the use of renewable energy and to generate more value from conventional sources, such as heat," Molapisi added.
Solar-powered headquarters
Molapisi said that the capacity that will be procured will be determined by the bidders. MTN expects the project will make it self-sufficient for its energy needs. It has already identified several buildings for rooftop installations.
For the solar car parks, shade cloth will be replaced with solar car park structures and PV panels. The project will also use battery storage – to store the energy produced.