Global module manufacturer Trina Solar has opened a warehouse in South Africa.
Expanding its presence in the growing national market, the warehouse is in Pretoria, Gauteng Province.
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The expansion is part of partnership with a local logistics company already well established in the country.
Trina has said the new facility will increase the company’s local footprint and improve its services and support in South Africa, expanding on its previous operations in imported stock, stored in containers.
Trina entered the South African market three years ago with the warehouse to accompany its Johannesburg office.
Ben Hill, Trina’s head of Europe and Africa said: “With a local warehouse and distribution centre, our country-wide team will be able to provide faster deliveries to customers as we will now be able to have quantities readily available.
“In addition to the distribution centre in Pretoria we are able to leverage our supplier’s satellite warehouse operations in Durban and Cape Town for direct deliveries in these areas or cross-dock to other African counties,” said Hill.
The South Africa solar market is beginning to gain ground, after the success of the county’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP).
South Africa currently has rising energy prices while solar costs continue on a dowward spiral. Earlier this month an 85MW thin-film solar project was completed in De Ar in South Africa.
Hill predicts “double digit” growth in Africa over the next ten years, while the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has a predicted 12GW pipeline and could be worth US$50 billion by 2020.