PacB Group // PacB Group Goes Solar

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PacB Group Goes Solar

The people of South Africa are fortunate to have abundant sunshine virtually throughout the year. This is undoubtedly why this country is known  as “sunny South Africa”, although the entire African continent is sunny, with a warm to hot climate and an abundance of sunlight. With sunlight being a free and readily available resource, it makes sense to opt for solar panel installation to allow for optimal use of the resource. That said, proper and regular solar panel maintenance is essential to keep on benefiting from the sun’s power.

Free to All

Sunlight is free. It belongs to all upon whom it shines. Harnessing sunlight, converting it into electrical energy and storing this power in batteries requires a capital input. However, money spent on the acquisition of renewable energy systems like solar panels – by the PacB Group, is generally recovered as cost savings within a relatively short period after professional installation, and kept in tip-top condition with routine maintenance.

Maintenance – Vital to Performance

It’s always essential to ensure that panel maintenance takes place because a set of solar panels’ optimal function is vital to the entire system’s performance. Keep in mind that panels are exposed to dust, debris, airborne pollutants, heat, cold, harsh sunlight, wind, rain and whatever the weather and climate throw at equipment that functions outside.

Solar panel maintenance primarily consists of removing foreign particles, grit, grime and dust from the surface of the panels that house the photovoltaic cells. The components work together to absorb sunlight and, enabled by the function of certain components within the cells, convert the sun’s energy into usable electricity.

Initially, the electrical power is DC (Direct Current). A specialised solar inverter converts DC into AC (Alternating Current) energy, which is the electricity standard in South Africa.

Basic Maintenance

If the covering of the sequenced photovoltaic cells (the panel) is coated with dust and grime, these pollutants filter and decrease the amount of power and its strength provided by the sun’s rays. This diminishes the cells’ ability to fully absorb solar energy, adversely affecting the amount of available electricity, the performance and efficacy of the entire system.

Periodic maintenance is thus essential. The more dusty your environment, the more frequently maintenance will be required. Power solution experts, like the reputable PacB Group, will advise you about the ins and outs and dos and don’ts of solar panel ownership, its operation and its maintenance.

Engaging the services of PacB for solar (and other) power solutions is a wise choice. Energy obtained from free South African sunlight is clean and renewable. Engaging the services of PacB as an experienced power solution specialist, is all clients really need to do.

PacB will send out a fully trained team to establish your electricity requirements and the solar system that best meets your needs. You benefit from professional, accredited installation, commissioning, maintenance and routine service too, as and when necessary. 

Much-Needed Natural Progression

Incorporating solar power, in the form of solar panels, is a natural and much-needed progression in the quest to produce, meet and satisfy South Africa’s essential energy needs – something that the national electricity supplier has so far been unable to maintain or achieve reliably and consistently, since latter part of 2007.

Load Shedding and Its Repercussions

At that time, South Africans were to learn, adopt and soon detest a newly invented term, while living or reluctantly putting up with its highly inconvenient, often costly consequences. The term was and still is “load shedding”, a means of casting off the excess load placed upon Eskom’s power-generating equipment for several hours in defined areas, thereby avoiding an overload situation, which would cause the entire system’s collapse.

The repercussions of load shedding are almost endless – such is the extent of humanity’s reliance on electrical power. Almost everything we use at home, at work and at play, socially and professionally depends on the use and supply of electricity. This has a ripple effect when the power is on, as well as when it’s off and unavailable.

Demand Outstrips Supply

Throughout the country, demand for electrical power has outstripped the supply thereof, which is mainly generated by fossil fuel-hungry coal-fired power stations, in combination with a limited power supply that is generated by the country’s one and only nuclear power station in Cape Town, Koeberg.

Despite its limited capacity, Koeberg’s contribution to the national grid is sorely missed and definitely felt by consumers when any of its units are shut down for maintenance. The need for supplementary or stand-alone electricity alternatives is obvious. Sunlight is a strong, reliable contender in the quest to get sustainable energy in South Africa.

Types of Installations

There are two types of solar panel installations. One is a stand-alone system, whilst in the second type, the building is connected to the national grid. With the latter, the solar system kicks in to provide power when the electricity supply is interrupted. Power is obtained from the grid during an extended period of no sunlight to supply energy from this source. Sunlight remains vital to both options.

With the stand-alone system, the installation serves to provide in the power supply needs of the premises when there is a power supply interruption without tying into the grid supply. The same system can provide in all the power needs of the premises even when there is no other source of electricity. It thus acts as the main source of power supply. It is the ideal system for remote premises or for a business that wants the independence that comes from not relying on Eskom for electricity supply.

Sustainable Power Solution Specialists

With proper care and regular routine maintenance, solar panels may provide most or all of your energy needs successfully for some 25 to 30 years or longer. It thus pays to get power solution specialists from PacB Group to attend to your cost and sustainable electricity requirements.

To this end, we’ve created service level agreements, which provide clients with four service and maintenance inspections annually, ensuring that your setup delivers the power you require, and more. With our comprehensive service offerings, we are able to keep your power supply in top-notch condition. Although repairs are seldom needed, it is essential to have specialists available to help immediately. With a long history of superb customer service and our qualified technicians able to identify the problems quickly, you have all the reasons to make use of our solar panel installation and maintenance services.