This project is located in Kampala, Uganda, and was designed for a local brick factory. The factory relies on heavy electrical machinery for daily production, making a stable and reliable power supply essential for continuous operations.
Before installing the solar system, the factory was facing two major challenges: unstable grid power and high diesel generator costs. Frequent power outages interrupted production, while the increasing cost of diesel placed significant pressure on the factory’s operating expenses. To reduce its dependence on both the unreliable grid and expensive diesel generation, the customer decided to introduce solar power.
The factory’s main load is a 37kW motor, which is an inductive load with a high starting-power demand. During motor startup, the instantaneous power can reach approximately 5–8 times the rated power, creating a significant impact on the power supply system. Simply providing sufficient solar capacity was therefore not enough—the motor startup challenge also had to be addressed.
To solve this problem, TANFON designed a 100kW hybrid solar system with a 63KVA Variable Frequency Drive (VFD). The VFD helps control the motor’s starting process, reduce the starting power demand, and minimize the impact of the motor on the overall power system. This allows the factory’s main machinery to start and operate more smoothly and reliably.
The complete system includes 170 pieces of 625W solar panels, providing approximately 106.25kW of PV capacity, together with a 100kWh battery system and an S6-EH3P100K-H hybrid inverter. The solar system works together with the battery storage and grid power to provide a stable energy supply for the factory’s production equipment.
After installation, the system has been operating stably and delivering excellent results. According to the customer, around 90% of the electricity used by the factory’s machinery is now supplied by solar energy. This has significantly reduced the factory’s diesel consumption and effectively lowered its production electricity costs.
The customer is highly satisfied with the performance of the system. By combining solar power, battery storage, hybrid power management, and VFD motor control, this project provides a practical solution for factories with heavy motor loads and unstable grid conditions.
This Uganda brick factory project demonstrates that solar power is not only suitable for residential applications—it can also provide a reliable and cost-effective energy solution for industrial facilities with high-power motors and demanding production loads.
