MTN announced in a press release on Wednesday, 9 July 2014, that it has built a concentrating solar cooling system to provide power to its data centres, claiming it as a first for Africa.<\/p>\n
The system was designed by Reach Renewable and AOS Consulting Engineers, and implemented jointly with Industrial Solar, Voltas Technologies, and Luft Technik.<\/p>\n
It is supported by ISF Services, Classen Auret, Project Works, DSM, and Pentad.<\/p>\n
According to MTN, the system is driven by technology called Linear Fresnel Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) that uses heat generated from the sun and has a peak cooling capacity of 330kW.<\/p>\n
The system consists of 242 solar mirrors covering a total area of 484 square metres, which can generate pressurised hot water at 180 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n
This hot water powers an absorption chiller that produces chilled water, which is circulated into the data centre for cooling IT equipment.<\/p>\n
MTN said the mirrors follow the movement of the sun based on their GPS location, orientation, and the date and time.<\/p>\n
This information guides the system to track the sun to concentrate on the central absorber tube where heat is generated, MTN said.<\/p>\n
When it rains, the mirrors move into a self-cleaning position, while on cloudy days the mirrors turn down into a protective stow position.<\/p>\n
The absorption chillers themselves use a lithium bromide water solution, which uses water as the refrigerant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a completely green solution that has zero global warming potential (GWP=0) and no ozone depletion potential (ODP=0),\u201d MTN said.<\/p>\n
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