Sun City, an integrated luxury resort at Guateng, near Johannesburg in South Africa, with a casino and numerous accommodation options including the flagship Sun City Palace hotel, is undertaking a massive sustainability drive by installing solar panels to meet its demand for electricity.

According to a statement by Sun City, the developer-owner of the properties under Sun City brand, the company is currently installing solar panels that will produce a total of 23 MW of power when the installation is completed.

The statement adds that with all available space on the roof of Sun Central, one of the hotels in the resort complex, now covered by solar panels, the resort lifted its sights to the roof at the Palace and the Sun City hotel. To install the power panels on the rooftop of Sun City Palace, the company is using helicopters to ferry the panels from the ground to the rooftop.

Brett Hoppé

“Conventional installation methods such as cranes would have inconvenienced our guests, so given the scale of the project, we decided that airlifting the equipment was the best and quickest solution. At its highest point the Palace is 70m high, so lifting 1,193 solar panels and the supporting steel structures onto the roof is no mean feat. The hefty panels were packed into crates, with each one weighing just under a tonne,’’  says Brett Hoppé, General Manager, Sun City.

Hoppé emphasises that the roll out of the panels forms part of a broader, phased environmental strategy that will, in the future, take the resort off the grid.

“Sun City is an enormous property with many moving parts to power up, but we believe our ground-breaking project not only reduces our Resort’s demand and consumption of energy, but that it will also meet Sun International’s broader environmental commitment. Our sustainability promise is based on people, planet and profits, in that order. Solar power is beneficial to our broader community as the less power we draw from the grid the more is available to others, it works for our guests, especially those travelling from overseas, as they want to know that they are not increasing their own environmental footprint when they stay at Sun City, and it works for our own bottom line. Since June last year we have completed the first two phases of the project and have already realised a financial saving of approximately ZAR 3.1 million (about USD 180,000).

Lwazi Mswelanto

The installation has been planned in several phases. When this particular phase has been completed, demand from the resort on the national grid will drop by an estimated total of 2.3 MW.

“Our sustainability agenda is focused on not only shrinking our environmental footprint, but also on uplifting our surrounding communities. We work closely with all partners to ensure that members of our doorstep communities are employed, trained and upskilled to service the technology during the building, and after completion of the project. Sun City currently employs 18 locals through our solar project. For us it is critical to be able to give back to our community,” says Lwazi Mswelanto, Sustainability Manager, Sun City.

The statement adds that the project showcases a meticulously planned approach, having secured approvals from Sun City’s management and aligned with stringent health and safety standards. “The planning phase, which took about two months, was critical in minimising risk and disruption to Sun City’s operations, ensuring the safety of both guests and the structural integrity of the buildings,” says T M Lesetla, Senior Operations Engineer, Tsebo Energy Solutions, the company which is installing the solar panels.