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Lagos State during a three-month period in 2015. This involved the collection of 183 solar


power enclosures with integrated battery banks and remote monitoring systems from six different origin points in Spain, the US, Germany, China, the UK and South Africa. In total, GSC was responsible for the successful delivery of 203 custom-built 20 ft containers of solar panels, batteries, controllers, cabins, cabling and other necessary equipment for what is Africa’s largest off-grid renewable solar power project. To ensure quality control, GSC provided


GSC delivers ‘green’ energy to Africa’


The BIFA award-winning Greenshields Cowie team has used its ocean services to deliver life-changing solar panels to remote areas of Africa where they help improve health and education, writes Giles Large


Greenshields Cowie won the Ocean Services Award, sponsored by Port of Antwerp, at the 28th annual BIFA Freight Service Awards ceremony held in London in January. The judges said that Greenshields Cowie


“demonstrated an effective use of ocean services from four continents in order to manage the delivery of solar panels and associated equipment to remote areas of Africa in a bid to bring clean energy to health facilities and schools in developing regions.”


‘Green’ spirit The judges were also impressed by the ‘green’ spirit of the team at Greenshields Cowie. Universal energy access is an important driver


for basic economic activity, productivity and ultimately poverty reduction. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people are without access to electricity and around 30% of all health facilities, serving approximately 255 million people, lack access to energy supplies. Many households rely on kerosene lamps for


basic lighting and gas-run electrical appliances, which are not only expensive, non-renewable and polluting energy resources, but are also damaging to health as the risk of


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accidents is extremely high. Greenshields Cowie (GSC) has been tackling


the dual problems of energy access and sustainable energy by supporting large-scale solar initiatives that act as a key driver and solution to closing the access to energy gap. A recent example is the Lagos Solar Project


which aims to provide a total of 5 mW of embedded solar power to education and health facilities in Nigeria’s most economically relevant state, which has a population of over 20 million people. Through the Lagos State Electricity Board and in a co-funding partnership with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), GSC successfully delivered over £15 million worth of PV solar components to


inspection and quality assurance services at the manufacturers’ premises prior to dispatch. It carried out more than 20 visits for the pre- shipment verification, including loading inspection at various locations. During this process, it discovered two products that were sub-standard and had to be replaced. This was done quickly, at cost to the supplier, and to customer satisfaction, without incurring any delays to the delivery schedule. All of GSC’s suppliers must undergo rigorous


due diligence screening, disclosing full company details, financial standing, relevant litigation and investigation information and ethical history, as well as a range of documentation, such as Certificates of Incorporation, industry standard certification, tax registration certificates and two years of audited accounts to mitigate financial risks of association, looking at company profit and loss, net current ratios, cash levels and reserves during the review. GSC will only work with suppliers that have passed full due diligence.


Hospital treatment For the recipient clinics and hospitals, a reliable energy source means that vital temperature- controlled medicines can be stored safely and used for the treatment of local patients. In the educational field, energy access is also vital as in enabling children to have light, they can study beyond daylight hours. In the past, the fumes from kerosene lamps were not only polluting to the environment but they also posed a serious risk of fire. It has been estimated that switching from kerosene to solar energy can reduce annual household emissions by as much as 555 kg of CO2


. Following the successful implementation of


the Lagos Solar Project, GSC was awarded a second contract worth £7.5 million for the provision of clean energy to Nigeria’s Kaduna State. This new project provides 1.7 mW of installed solar-powered electricity generating capacity at 34 public health centres throughout the state.


September 2017


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