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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

Postgraduate School and Faculty of Law receive Rector during discussion with emerging researchers

2012-09-11

A session of the special programme for upcoming researchers was attended by, from the left: Denine Smit, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Prof. Voet du Plessis of the Department of Mercantile Law and Marda Horn; back: Glancina Mokone, Albert Nell, Pieter Brits, Prof. Neil Roos, Director of the UFS’s Postgraduate School and Jamie Faber.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs
11 September 2012

Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the university, recently addressed six Ph.D. students and their supervisors in the Faculty of Law as part of a special programme of the Postgraduate School for emerging researchers. Prof. Jansen contextualised his lecture on the impact and significance of research, “How do you determine that the important and bigger questions in your research are addressed to ensure the impact thereof?” in his discussion with the researchers. Based on the model of international postgraduate seminars, the researchers set out their field of study to Prof. Jansen and the audience. Suggestions were then made on how to increase the intellectual impact and theoretical depth of academic argumentation.

According to Prof. Neil Roos, Director of the Postgraduate School, together with Prof. Jackie du Toit and Prof. Corli Witthuhn, Academic Coordinators for the Vice Chancellor’s Prestige Scholar Programme, the aim of the programme is to provide support to emerging researchers on postgraduate level similar to the Prestige Scholar Programme.

“The initiative is being rolled out in a faculty-specific way. In consultation with the deans, the specific needs in the faculty are determined, which in turn determines the approach,” says Prof. Roos.

The six students are all involved at the university in various capacities, and are studying towards a Ph.D. in Law. They are outstanding candidates who are being funded by the Postgraduate School in order to empower postgraduate students to greater reach, internationalisation and the establishment of long-term academic networks. The programme is coordinated in the Faculty of Law by Prof. Loot Pretorius.

Two upcoming researchers in the Faculty of Theology and one in Nursing joined the group for Prof. Jansen’s lecture on significant research.

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