Green SMMEs growing economic opportunity in Cape Town

In May, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, Alderman James Vos, visited green SMMEs, observing all health and safety protocols, with GreenCape, one of the City’s Strategic Business Partners in the catalytic green economy sector. The purpose of these visits was to offer support to green SMMEs, making sure that the City supports the continued investment and job creation in the green economy. Five months later, these businesses are still going strong. Read more below:

One of the visits was to SolarMD, a local manufacturing company that specialises in commercial and industrial Lithium-Ion battery storage solutions. Since May, Solar MD has implemented a range of growth strategies, essentially doubling in factory size and introducing  two more laser-welding machines increasing their daily output production to 800kWh.

SolarMD currently has a strong order book of 11MWh on pre-paid solutions, with more orders constantly streaming in. This amounts to approximately 3 000 of its smaller battery packs, indicating that demand for energy storage products is growing substantially in the region.

‘Energy storage is expected to become the keystone of the future energy services market. We are delighted to see the growth that SolarMD has managed to achieve, even during these difficult times,’ said Alderman Vos.

Another green SMME that formed part of the visit in May is SustainSolar, who manufacture turnkey and modular containerised solar solutions for off-grid applications.

Since the site visit in May, they have been able to export one of their Sustain Extended turn-key solutions from their workshop in Cape Town to Uganda. Sustain Power was also awarded the globally recognised Solar Impulse Foundation Efficient Solutions Label, one of the first South African companies to have been awarded this honour.

Read more about the Solar Impulse Foundation partnership with the International Cleantech Network, through local partner GreenCape: https://www.green-cape.co.za/content/international-label-championing-profitable-cleantech-solutions-invites-south-african-companies-to-apply/

‘We are very excited that our green SMMEs are creating trade gateways into Africa, and being recognised for their global relevance.  It is the growth of these and other SMMEs in the green economy that creates jobs and increased economic opportunity for the city and its residents,’ said Alderman Vos.