Solar for Cold Rooms and Packhouses in the Western Cape

Cold rooms and packhouses run compressors through the hottest hours of the day, which makes them some of the best solar loads in agriculture. They are also some of the most sensitive to outages, because a failed cold room can cost far more than a bill. A well-designed solar system cuts the daytime bill and, with the right backup, protects the produce.

What drives the design

• The compressor and fan loads and their start-up currents.
• Packing and sorting line equipment and when it runs.
• The harvest peak, not just the yearly average.
• Which loads must keep running during an outage and for how long.
• Roof space, roof condition and structural capacity, or room for a ground array.

Backup for refrigeration

Solar alone does not keep a cold room cold at night or during an outage. A battery or hybrid system, or a generator working with the system, can. We size the backup around the equipment that must keep running and tell you honestly what a given budget will cover.

Rooftop or ground-mounted

Packhouse roofs are large and flat or gently sloped, which suits rooftop arrays. Where roofs are old, shaded or too small, ground-mounted arrays can supply the same loads. We check the structure before we recommend either.

Frequently asked questions

Can solar cover a whole packhouse? It can cover a large share of the daytime load. How much depends on roof or ground space, the size of the load and your tariff.

Will solar keep my cold room running in a power cut? Only if the system includes batteries or a hybrid design sized for the refrigeration. We design this on request.

How do you handle harvest peaks? We size the system around your peak season loads and advise on whether to size for the average or the peak.

Related farm solar guides

Back to our farm solar hub for the Western Cape. Other farm types: Irrigation and borehole pumping, Cold rooms and packhouses, Wine estates and cellars, Dairy and livestock farms. See where we work in the Cape Winelands, the Swartland and West Coast, the Overberg and the Klein Karoo and Cederberg.