Polymer bearing material producer Vesconite Bearings intends to take advantage of South Africa’s high levels of solar radiation to power some of its most power-hungry processes.
The company has already installed the first phase of its solar project, comprising 14 strings of 18 x 350 W Canadian solar panels and a 66 kW Schneider Electric inverter.
该系统在峰值时产生65千瓦时，逆变器向工厂的挤出部门供应60千瓦，这使其专有的Vesconite和Vesconite Hilube耐磨自润滑空心条和杆。
因此,t的半截he department’s electricity needs of 80kW/h, are provided for during peak sunlight hours, with a smaller proportion of the department’s electricity needs being catered for from dawn and after 12 noon.
“This is a 60 kW on-demand grid-tied system,” explains Extrusion Head Marius Du Plooy.
“This means that the inverter is synchronized with the municipality’s supply and we use what we produce during the daytime,” he notes.
Unfortunately, the municipality in which Vesconite Bearings is located does not allow energy producers to sell excess power back to it.
It is not yet cost-effective to use storage batteries, so the full energy-production-capacity of the solar system is not harnessed and the company is investigating how to expand the usage of the system.
Vesconite’s CEO, Dr. Jean-Patrick Leger, is pleased that the company has been able to harness the power of the sun for its extrusion processes and will soon have “Produced by Solar Power” stickers printed for the company’s extrusions produced during the “solar shift”.
挤出机往往是电力密集，因为熔化聚合物的桶加热器需要能量;通过挤出机推动聚合物材料的螺杆驱动器;和数字控制系统。
However, the location of the company in sunny South Africa, with more than 2,500 hours of sunshine a year and solar-radiation levels of between 4.5 and 6.5 kWh/m2 per day is a clear benefit.
“这是小型企业可以省钱的一件事，使自己更依赖于国家提供的电力，并减少对环境的影响，”leger说。
Vesconite Bearings
www.vesconite.com
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