Solar carries the factory's daytime load while the machines are running.
Case study · Commercial solar · Bindura, Zimbabwe
We built it for ourselves first.
A 77 kWp solar-and-storage plant powering Northlands Resources' roofing-sheet manufacturing facility in Bindura.
US$1,440/ R23,000Saved every month (est.)
US$17,300/ R277,000Saved every year (est.)
US$590k/ R9.4mOver 25 years*
The pain point
When the grid stops, production stops
Manufacturing runs on power. Roll-forming machines that turn steel coil into roofing sheets, door frames and ridge caps can't stop every time the grid does. For Northlands Resources in Bindura, unreliable supply meant idle machines, missed delivery dates and money spent on diesel just to keep the lights on. Zimbabwe's power gap isn't a headline for manufacturers; it is a line on every production schedule.
What we built
Solar built around the factory
77,220 WpRooftop solar
50,000 WInverter capacity
40,000 WhBattery storage
40 kWh of batteries smooth out cloud cover and ride through grid interruptions.
Remote telemetry tracks generation and consumption live, so performance is measured, not assumed.
What the factory now saves
Power the factory no longer buys from ZESA
US$1,440 (R23,000)per month
US$17,300 (R277,000)per year
US$590k (R9.4m)projected over the 25-year asset life
US$410k (R6.5m) even if tariffs never rise
About 124,000 kWh a year generated on the factory's own roof instead of bought from the grid.
Why it matters
Proof on our own roof
Northlands Resources is part of BridgeFort Infrastructure Group. Before we asked any client to trust us with their power, we put our own production line on it. The same roof now powers the business that manufactures the roofing sheets our property and construction clients buy — a working proof of what we deliver.
Every kilowatt-hour the roof produces is one Northlands no longer buys from ZESA — or burns diesel to make during an outage.
What we can do for Zimbabwean businesses
Power your operation with solar
Zimbabwe
- Rooftop and ground-mount solar for factories, mines, farms, schools and SMEs, sized from your actual load profile
- Battery storage to keep critical equipment running through outages
- Remote monitoring and performance reporting
- Own-use solar plants up to 10 MW need no generation licence; plants from 100 kW to 10 MW simply register with ZERA before construction (S.I. 126 of 2026)
- Net metering now pays for surplus exported at the end of each annual billing cycle, and virtual net metering lets credits move between your sites (S.I. 127 of 2026)
BridgeFort Energy
Tell us what your power outages are costing you. We'll show you what solar can save.
Estimates, not metered results. Annual generation of about 124,000 kWh assumes a typical Zimbabwean specific yield of 1,600 kWh per kWp for the 77.22 kWp array, all used on site. Savings are valued at an assumed ZESA commercial tariff of US$0.14 per kWh. *25-year projection assumes 3% annual tariff escalation and 0.5% annual panel degradation, and excludes battery/inverter replacement and maintenance; the flat case holds today's tariff constant. Diesel savings during outages are not included. Rand figures at R16 = US$1. System specifications from the as-installed record, September 2026.