DPA, Varun in power deal

DISTRIBUTED Power Africa (DPA) has signed a 25-year power lease agreement with beverage maker Varun Beverages in a deal which will see the installation of a 2,5MWp rooftop solar solution at Varun’s bottling plant in Harare.

DPA leads in innovative renewable solar energy solutions for Africa. The company was launched in 2011 and is a subsidiary of Econet Global, and has operations across Africa, including in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, DRC, Ivory Coast and Togo.

Varun Beverages Zimbabwe chief executive officer Vijay Bahl said the solar-powered solution would help reduce the company’s energy costs, thereby enabling it to have consistent power supply.

“We are pleased to partner with DPA on this milestone project. Implementation of this solar-powered solution will effectively reduce our energy costs, enable us to manage consistent power supply and further pass the benefit of affordable Pepsi products to Zimbabwean consumers. We are expecting a saving of approximately 2 500 tonnes of carbon emissions annually,” he said.

With a forecast annual energy production of 4,1GW, the system will be mounted at Varun Beverages’ bottling plant and will be the largest roof-mounted solar system installed in Zimbabwe to date.

Varun Beverages, the licensed bottler for PepsiCo products in Zimbabwe is set to benefit from significant savings on the costs of grid and diesel back-up power, business continuity during power outages and a reduced carbon footprint.

DPA Zimbabwe chief executive officer Divyajeet Mahajan highlighted that they are looking forward to assisting commercial customers to shift to environmentally-friendly power solutions.

“We are committed to helping our commercial and industrial customers by providing fully integrated solutions that drive down their energy costs and meet their commitments to protect the environment. We believe this should inspire other energy-intensive sectors to join the growing movement towards sustainable energy and shift to more efficient and environmentally-friendly power solutions like solar.”

The system being installed at the beverages company can efficiently run its operations and feed excess power to the national grid while saving over 25 000 trees annually.-newsday