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UFS installs solar plants on all campuses, bolstering renewable energy amid continuing power cuts

18 August 2023 | Story Lunga Luthuli | Photo Francois van Vuuren

Bloemfontein Campus Solar Farm — The solar plant on the UFS’s Bloemfontein Campus, part of the university’s commitment to combatting loadshedding and embracing sustainable energy.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has installed solar plants across its three campuses.

The university says this is in response to the call for urgent solutions to loadshedding and the promotion of environmentally sustainable, cleaner, and renewable energy solutions.

Nicolaas Esterhuysen, Director of Engineering Services at UFS University Estates, said,

“The PV (photovoltaic) systems are grid-tied without storage to ensure maximum benefits and faster payback periods.”

Esterhuysen said the UFS has saved up to R32,5 million since the first solar plant was commissioned in 2017 to help the UFS reduce the impact of loadshedding and its carbon footprint and energy costs. “This will substantially increase this year with the commissioning of two large new ground-mounted solar plants on the Bloemfontein Campus,” he said.

“The microgrid installation on Qwaqwa Campus is one of the biggest solar diesel hybrid systems installed in South Africa. It allows us to keep the campus running despite excessive power interruptions.”

The UFS is currently embarking on research as part of the Grid-related Research Group (GRRP) under the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures (ICDF) to also help staff and students with understanding renewable energy and sustainability.

Esterhuysen said the plants are further evidence of the UFS’s commitment to renewable and energy saving solutions. “It is our flagship project, but our focus is also on energy saving initiatives – to ensure we are becoming more energy efficient and eliminate energy wastage. We have plans for expansion on all campuses. Some of the highlights are an off-grid solution for the new student centre at Qwaqwa Campus and to make South Campus a self-sustaining campus.”

The installed grid-tied system solar plants are operating without batteries on all three campuses, giving the university an optimal configuration between capital cost and payback period.

The energy generated at the solar plants:

Bloemfontein Campus – 3688 kWp

Qwaqwa Campus – 918 kWp

South Campus – 759 kWp

Paradys – 125 kWp

News Archive

Judge Deon van Zyl donates prominent collection of legal books to the UFS

2009-12-08

His Honourable Judge Deon van Zyl, Inspecting Judge of Prisons recently donated his collection history of law books, including valuable editions of Roman Dutch law resources and works on Roman law and history of law to the Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State (UFS). “I trust that this will be of use as aids for research and training in law,” Judge Van Zyl said.

This is the biggest collection ever that the faculty received.

Prof. Johan Henning, Dean of the Faculty of Law says this collection is of invaluable worth for the faculty as well as the UFS. This unique source will enables the faculty to place postgraduate learning and research about the common law on a much higher level. “Without this collection the faculty will have been much poorer,” Prof. Henning said.

Judge Van Zyl made this donation showing his appreciation for what the Faculty has managed to accomplish over the years. At age 26, from 1 July 1971 to 31 December 1973, he was the first Head of and Professor in the Department of Roman Law and History of Law who taught in the Faculty of Law at the UFS.
Photo: Stephen Collett

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