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Laager Centre
One property. A Spar, line stores, offices and homes. One energy system that had to serve all of them.
- Solar PV
- 391 kWp
- Location
- Pietermaritzburg
The project
Laager Centre is not a single building with a single tenant — it is a working precinct. A Spar anchor store, a row of line stores, commercial offices, and a residential block all draw power from the same property, each with its own load profile and its own tolerance for disruption. Designing one solar system to serve all of them, without compromising any of them, was the real engineering problem.
Before a panel went up, the site's ageing electrical infrastructure had to be brought up to standard. We upgraded it to carry a modern grid-tied solar installation safely and to leave clean, documented headroom for the future — not patched to pass, rebuilt to last.
The 391 kWp array, delivering 266 kW of AC output, was engineered across multiple roof types and orientations rather than forced onto the easiest surfaces. Each roof section was assessed on its own merits — pitch, structure, and solar yield — so the system performs as a single coordinated asset across a deliberately uneven site.
The result is a mixed-use precinct where retail, commercial and residential tenants are powered by one grid-tied system that was designed around the property as it actually is — not the property it would have been convenient for us to build on.
Key facts
- Location: Pietermaritzburg, KZN
- Sector: Other
- System type: Grid-Tied
- Solar PV: 391 kWp
- Scope highlights: 266 kW AC · Mixed-Use Precinct
- Status: Completed
Mixed-use precinct — single system
Sunbird Solar (Pty) Ltd
Unit 7, Wow Business Park, Gourly Road, Ballito, 4420, South Africa
Office: +27 87 711 3013
Email: jordan@sunbirdsolar.co.za