Montego Pet Nutrition, which claims to be South Africa’s leading pet food brand, is investing further in solar energy. Having already invested 22 mio rand (1 mio euros) in 2019 to kick off the dedicated solar installation and energy storage plant at its Graaff-Reinet production facility, Montego intends to invest another 11 mio rand (541 000 euros) to become a low-carbon company and play a role in sustaining the environment.
“Comprising over two thousand 550 W panels and covering more or less the entire roof of our head office in Graaff-Reinet, the new upgrade takes it a step further. We’ve integrated and digitised the solar energy plants to allow remote monitoring and control of the entire system, online, in real-time,” said Kallie Venter, engineering manager at Montego.
The extensive installation took four months to complete. “The project has been so successful that we’re actually producing around 200 KW per day in excess capacity, which we feed back into the national electricity supply grid, so we’re also contributing to alleviating the energy crisis overall,” Venter enthuses. The company plans to install photovoltaic systems at all its manufacturing facilities, commencing with the Centurion plant early next year.