Sun City holiday resort, owned by JSE-listed hotel and casino group Sun International, has saved just over R8m in electricity costs after installing solar panels at some of its key hotels and entertainment areas.
Since 2023, the resort spent R17m on a solar plant to reduce electricity consumption from the national grid. It installed 3,984 solar panels at its entertainment centre Sun Central (2,793), The Palace (585) and Sun City Hotel (606), completed in August 2024. Its energy saving off the national grid is around 2.24 MW.
The resort has generated more than 5.8-million kWh of clean energy since the completion of its latest solar panel installations.
“Our sustainability promise is based on people, planet and profits, in that order. Solar is beneficial to our broader community as the less power we draw from the grid the more is available to others. It works for our guests, especially those travelling from overseas, as they want to know they are not increasing their own environmental footprint when they stay at Sun City, and it works for our bottom line,” said GM Brett Hoppé.
Sun City said it will explore opportunities to expand solar coverage to other resort facilities and integrate battery storage solutions to enhance energy resilience and reduce peak demand.
In future it may include feeding the energy back into the national grid.
“Discussions with relevant stakeholders are ongoing to ensure regulatory alignment and infrastructure readiness,” it said.
In the financial results for the six months to June, Sun City’s income was R973m, an increase of 7.6%. Sun International said the resort has benefited from the continued increase in domestic leisure, conferencing and international travel.
Business Times
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