Industrial · Solar PV + Hybrid
Mbale Coffee Washing Station
Processing season, without the diesel bill.
- Location
- Mbale
- Scale
- 45 kWp
- Commissioned
- 2023
- Diesel generation displaced
- ~60%Diesel generation displaced
- Array capacity
- 45 kWpArray capacity
- Load profile matched
- SeasonalLoad profile matched
- Commissioned
- 2023Commissioned
Figures are representative of work delivered in this sector and are rounded. Full project documentation available on request.
01 — The brief
What we walked into
A 45 kWp hybrid array serving a coffee washing station through its intense processing season, displacing the majority of diesel generation and removing the fuel haulage that had been the site’s single largest operational headache.
A washing station with a punishing seasonal profile: near-continuous processing load for a few months, minimal demand for the rest of the year. Grid supply was intermittent and diesel filled the gap at a cost that rose with every fuel delivery over poor roads. A conventional annual-average sizing would have produced an array far too small for the season that mattered.
02 — The approach
What we engineered
We sized against the processing season rather than the annual average — the only period where generation has real value here. 45 kWp of ground-mounted modules feed a hybrid inverter configured to run in parallel with both grid and generator, so whatever is available is used in merit order: solar first, grid second, diesel last and only when necessary. Ground mounting suited the site better than the processing shed roof, which carried equipment loads we were unwilling to add to. The generator remains, deliberately, as standby.
Engineering detail
- Sized to the processing season, not the misleading annual average
- Ground-mounted to avoid loading the processing shed roof
- Merit-order dispatch: solar first, grid second, diesel last
- Generator retained as standby rather than removed
- Cost-per-kilogram improvement verified against production records
03 — The result
What it delivers now
Roughly 60% of diesel generation was displaced across the first full processing season, and with it the fuel haulage that had been the operation’s most persistent logistical burden. Outside the season the array feeds the site’s modest base load, and the surplus is simply not generated rather than wasted. The client’s cost per kilogram processed fell in a way that survives audit, which matters more to them than any environmental claim — though roughly 40 tonnes of CO₂ per year comes with it.
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