Mobile network giant MTN says it is ‘first in Africa’ to use a concentrating solar cooling system to help power its data centres.

“The system consists of 242 solar mirrors covering a total area of 484 square metres, which track the sun to generate pressurised hot water at 180 degrees Celsius,” says MTN, referring to the facility that sits at its head office in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“The hot water in turn powers an absorption chiller that produces chilled water circulated into the data centre for cooling of IT equipment,” notes MTN.

MTN goes on to add, “It is driven by a cutting-edge technology called Linear Fresnel Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) that uses heat generated from the sun and has a peak cooling capacity of 330 kW.”

Mirrors of the system also track sun movements using global positioning satellite (GPS) technology.

“This information guides the system to track the sun to concentrate on the central absorber tube where heat is generated,” says MTN.

“The absorption chillers use a lithium bromide water solution which uses water as the refrigerant. This is a completely green solution that has zero global warming potential (GWP=0) and no ozone depletion potential (ODP=0). When it rains, the mirrors move into a self-cleaning position, and on cloudy days, the mirrors turn down into a protective stow position,” adds the mobile network.

MTN further notes its system was designed by REACH Renewable and AOS Consulting Engineers and implemented jointly with Industrial Solar, Voltas Technologies and Luft Technik.

The development of it was also supported by teams from ISF Services, Classen Auret, Project Works, DSM and Pentad.

MTN Group is Africa’s largest mobile network, operating in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

As of 31 March 2014, MTN recorded 210.1 million subscribers across its operations.