About 20 participants from different industries and institutions took part in the workshop. The aim was, besides informative discussions, to present the project “HyTrA” and to win new, interesting partners for the project.
Workshop content and participants:
Our host was the Atlantis Special Economic Zone for Green Technologies.
The industrial park, which specializes in green technologies, aims to attract new businesses to the park and educate the public and industry partners on the various topics. The main content of the discussion was the establishment of a training program to train local companies to manufacture components and maintain the systems.
Ursula Wellmann was there representing ASZE and says, “Sustainable technologies and the associated job profiles open up opportunities for employment and prosperity.”
The NGO GreenCape, has focused on the expansion of renewable energy in South Africa. GreenCape will assist with consulting and networking tasks and help with business development as well as establishing the technology in South Africa. A possible company foundation or the opening of a branch office of Texulting GmbH in Cape Town was discussed, as it would be easier to market the microgrid locally.
Mr. Gerhard Human also supported us as a speaker in the workshop. The self-employed expert for the use of hydrogen technology in South Africa sees a large area of application in the mining sector. Mining, especially the extraction of iron ore, is one of the most important economic sectors in South Africa. Mr. Human explained that there have been many projects in the past, but the real breakthrough of hydrogen technology has not been achieved yet. As a former project participant of the HySA project in SA, this could be a good partnership for the further development of the project. Gerhard Human: “South Africa is a pioneer in the use of green energy, HyTrA makes an important contribution to the transformation in the industry.”
In addition, cooperation at the scientific level was discussed with representatives of the University of Stellenbosch and the Fraunhofer South Africa branch office in Stellenbosch. The Mariendal Experimental Farm was discussed as a potential installation site for the microgrid. The experimental farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences primarily serves as a field laboratory where research projects and the training of students are carried out under strictly controlled conditions.
Furthermore, the company Mantula was present at the workshop, which deals with the conceptual design of solar plants. Here a cooperation would be well conceivable.
A company from the textile sector was also present at the workshop – Braitex. They produce narrow textile tapes and are struggling, like all local companies, especially with the planned power outages. Here, the microgrid would be a good solution. In the conversation, it came out that the state electricity provider is planning to impose higher fees on solar system users, as they initially use their own electricity during the day, but draw electricity from the general grid at night, which is why problems arise here, as it is not possible for the coal-fired power plants to regulate in a correspondingly agile manner and cover the additional demand of the night. In this regard, energy storage in the form of hydrogen can also provide very helpful support.
In addition, Peter Adler, a consultant from the textile sector, took part in the workshop. His task will be to promote further networking in the textile industry.
During the stay in South Africa, a visit was also paid to the Alu-Cab company. The manufacturer of camping bodies for vehicles was interested in testing the Microgrid on their premises. In order to be able to continue production during the power breaks, Alu-Cab currently uses a large diesel generator, which, however, causes high costs. Besides covering the power breaks, there would be another interesting application for the Microgrid: Alu-Cab owns several electric forklifts. The microgrid could produce and store hydrogen during the day, which could then be used to charge the forklifts at night.
The last interesting talk of the workshop, was with the d-school. This mainly teaches students at the University of Cape Town in the field of design thinking. Here, the project “HyTrA” will hand over various tasks around the topic of microgrid to the students, who will work intensively on these topics in the next course, in the fall. Topics could be, for example, the integration of the technology into society or similar. All project partners of “HyTrA” found this approach very exciting, since aspects can come to light that have not yet been considered. At the same time, these common topics can increase the scope of the project. The students take away findings and results from the project and can subsequently bring them closer to the companies.