Speaking on site to The Mercury, Rohan Persad, CEO of the Dube TradePort Corporation, said the project was the first solar panel installation of this scale at an airport precinct in Africa. "We understand that airports generally have a high carbon footprint because of the nature of the business. However, at our facility we have measured its annual carbon footprint at around 181 000 tons currently. We are the first airport facility in Africa to do this," said Persad. Installing the hi-tech photovoltaic solar power system would cost about R17 million and was part of the R430m investment budgeted for the entire AgriZone facility.
"The first phase of the installation took place on the roof of the logistics and cold storage facility, which will feed power to the AgriZone grid before the start of COP17," Persad said. The second phase will see solar panels installed on the roof of the warehousing facility. Dube TradePort was also undertaking a range of other initiatives in the Dube City precinct to manage its carbon footprint, including rainwater harvesting and the development of Green Star rated buildings only, as well as undertaking rehabilitation programmes of surrounding land, with hundreds of indigenous plants and trees being planted and alien plants removed.
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