Nico Laubscher and his sons, Nico Jr and Sybrand, farm wine grapes and cucumbers at Alzanne Boerdery near Vredendal on the Cape West Coast.

“We’re always searching for ways to improve things on the farm, and we turned our attention to renewable energy in 2020,” says Laubscher.

He adds that farmers are increasingly focusing on reducing their carbon footprint to remain sustainable.

“Vredendal is known for its many sunny days, and we thought solar energy might be a good option to explore in this regard. After making a few phone calls, we were introduced to Paul Kotze of Solar Energy Architects in Cape Town, who came out to our farm to do an evaluation for us. He confirmed something we’d already suspected: solar could work for us. However, we didn’t have enough roof space on our farm buildings to install the required number of solar panels.”

Laubscher says at that stage they were also considering plans to construct additional cooling facilities, which would have solved the problem regarding the lack of roof space, but they were concerned about the potential theft of the solar panels, as these buildings would be further away from the family’s immediate working and living spaces.

“We therefore put that plan on hold, and instead looked at the farm dam, which is right next to my house and office. I’d been contemplating the challenge we have with our dam, which is water loss through evaporation. [South Africa is] a water-scarce country, and as farmers in Vredendal, we’re acutely aware of what happens when the dams run dry. We were looking at many potential solutions to minimise evaporation, but then [Paul] suggested we solve two problems with one solution.