Solar for Oil Palm Plantations, Collection Yards and Mills

Yes, but you have to be clear about which part the system will cover. A large mill uses power on a scale that a rooftop system can never fully cover. What is realistic and worthwhile is covering the offices, support buildings, lighting and some of the pumps, which still takes a large amount off the monthly bill. We don't promise to bring a mill's electricity bill to zero, because that is not possible from an engineering point of view.

Very different, and it is this process — more than the installation time — that decides when the system actually starts running. Large electricity users have to file many times more paperwork with the PEA (Provincial Electricity Authority) than homes: electrical drawings certified by an engineer, a check of the anti-backfeed protection, and an on-site inspection appointment. We give you the timeframe for this process when we quote.

Noticeably faster than on an ordinary site. Dust from palm bunches and soil from trucks driving in and out hangs in the air all day. Dust that settles on the panels blocks light and reduces output. So we discuss the cleaning schedule at the design stage, and choose the layout and tilt with enough access for the panels to be cleaned easily.

It does. Sterilizing the fruit bunches releases steam continuously, so the area around a mill is far more humid than a typical factory. Constant high humidity speeds up corrosion at electrical connections and can cause condensation inside control cabinets. We choose enclosures with a higher protection rating than on ordinary jobs, and place the inverter away from the path of the steam.

An engineer has to check every time. These buildings have wide-span metal sheet roofs designed to carry only the original roof load, especially warehouses that were built long ago. Panels plus mounting weigh around 12 to 15 kg per square meter, which most buildings can take, but we don't judge it by eye. There has to be a certificate, because it is also used in the permit application.

If nothing in the plot uses electricity, it isn't worth it yet — the same as a bare rubber plantation. Mature oil palms rely mainly on rainfall and don't need irrigation, so there is no pump load to use the power. Solar makes sense for plantations with their own collection yard, a fruit store, or newly planted palms that need watering in the dry season. We look at your electricity bill first to see whether you qualify.

Mature oil palms grow to around 10 to 15 meters with wide-spreading fronds, so buildings in the middle of a plantation are shaded in strips at certain times of day. Strip shading makes panels wired in series lose more power than the shaded area alone would suggest. So we group the strings according to the real shade on site, or put the panels on the collection-yard roof, which stands in more open ground.