Pet food maker Montego Pet Nutrition has invested a further R11-million in a solar photovoltaic (PV) installation and energy storage plant at its head office.

This follows the installation of a R22-million solar PV and battery energy storage system at its Graaff-Reinet production facility in 2019.

The new upgrade, which took four months to complete, comprises two thousand 550 W panels, which cover almost the entire roof of the company's head office.

The company also integrated and digitised the solar energy plants to allow remote monitoring and control of the entire system online and in real-time, says Montego Pet Nutrition engineering manager Kallie Venter.

“The previous system featured an 843 kW PV array, spanning 4 580 m² of rooftop space and spelled the end of our loadshedding woes, meaning we could run production every day, regardless of the local power outage schedule. With it, we reduced our carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to the tune of 1.2-million kilograms a year and it saved us millions in energy and fuel costs,” he says.

“We are producing around 200 kW a day in excess of our needs, which we feed back into the national electricity supply grid,” he adds.

Further, Montego plans to install PV systems at all of its manufacturing facilities, starting with the Centurion plant early next year. The project has already been approved and contracted to a local company, Venter says.

“Part of our mission to be the leading pet food manufacturer in Africa, is our commitment to becoming a low-carbon company and playing a role in sustaining our environment,” comments Montego marketing executive Wilfred Cawood.

“We will keep pushing to ramp up our contributions to help alleviate the energy crisis and build towards a sustainable, prosperous future for everyone in South Africa. Our power plant is allowing us to continue producing at the required levels during loadshedding, thereby ensuring that pets that love Montego have food in their bowls,” he says.

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