Roy Cokayne
BMW South Africa is to consider wind and solar power options to make its Rosslyn production plant near Pretoria energy self-sufficient.
The carmaker expects that the Rosslyn factory will be able to provide between 25 percent and 30 percent of its energy needs itself by the middle of this year.
Tim Abbott, the managing director of BMW SA, said yesterday its off-take power purchasing agreement with an energy company had just commenced and would be fully operational by the middle of this year.
But Abbott stressed that wind and solar power had to be an option to increase the plant’s energy self-sufficiency.
Abbott was speaking ahead of a function to celebrate the production of the one-millionth BMW 3 Series sedan at its Rosslyn plant, which coincided with a special visit to South Africa by BMW management board member responsible for production Harald Krüger, who is also chairman of BMW SA.
Krüger said globalisation had been an inherent part of BMW’s corporate strategy for more than four decades and the Rosslyn plant, established in 1973 and the group’s first foreign plant, represented a cornerstone of its global production network now at 30 sites in 14 countries.
“To this day, the South African production site remains a vivid example of a successful market entry through local production,” he said.
Abbott said wind and solar power technologies were already used around the world in the BMW Group, adding the production of the BMW i3 electric car in the group’s Leipzig plant in Germany was run purely by four wind turbines.
BMW SA last year signed a 10-year off-take power purchasing agreement with Bio2Watt to bring renewable energy to its plant. It was believed to be the first private deal of its kind, with the BMW/Bio2Watt initiative also marking the first commercially viable biogas-electricity project in the country.
The power will be supplied to BMW SA from the 4.4MW installed capacity Bronkhorstspruit Biogas Plant, which is located on the premises of Beefcor, one of the country’s largest feedlots. Abbott said the gas would drive gas generators to allow the plant to produce its own electricity.
“We think we can probably replace about 50 percent of the gas usage in the plant through this process as well,” he said.
Load shedding
Abbott said load shedding by Eskom had not yet affected production at the plant but he attributed this to the flexibility of the plant and its 24-hour a day three-shift pattern. The biggest concern was with their first tier suppliers where Just-In-Time supply meant that if they did not get the electricity supply they required, that would have a knock-on effect on BMW’s plant.
Abbott said the three major challenges facing BMW SA were the power shortage, the skills shortage and labour instability.
The motor industry next year would have negotiations at the National Bargaining Forum about a new agreement with trade unions and BMW quite clearly did not want to get to June 30 “and get a surprise”.
“In 2013, we lost 13 000 units of production, which is painful. When you have got a three-shift pattern, we can’t make that up.
“We can’t afford as an organisation or as an industry for that to happen again,” he said.