MechChem Africa July-August 2025

Hybrid and renewable power solutions from WEG Africa MCA talks to Eduardo Werninghaus, CEO at WEG Africa, about WEG's comprehensive range of integrated, customer-centric power solutions and their role in transitioning industry towards more reliable, renewable and sustainable energy options.

important thing for customers, though, is to journey with us, so we can use whatever avail able resources they have to develop turnkey solutions that best meet their daily needs, their sustainability commitments, and their investment budgets,” he tells MCA. Pointing to a poster of one of WEG’s flag ship hybrid power projects in the South of Brazil, he says this solution combines WEG wind turbines with a solar PV plant and battery storage, with WEG as the OEM and technology partner for the entire plant. “We developed this 1.0 MWh renewable power plant in partnership with a global energy and renewable energy supplier. This was an R&D project to assess the capacity of the WEG turbines to remain connected during grid instability. “For us, this plant demonstrates our global capacity to deliver turnkey hybrid power generation solutions for our customers, ev erything from the turbines and PV panels to the inverters, switchgear and transformers

wide range of power generation improve ments, from using diesel power to using natural gas in backup generators, for example, or installing hybrid renewable power genera tion systems that combine a backup generator with solar panels and battery storage systems. In addition, the company in Brazil is the OEM for an extensive range of modern and highly efficient steam turbines for anyone needing process steam, and steam turbogene rators for those with access to a fuel resource such as biowaste or a combustible off-gas, for example. “Steam is widely used in the African market, and we have WEG turbogenerators available that can be fuelled by ethanol or any biofuel from the waste bagasse from sugar plants,” adds Werninghaus. In Brazil, he continues, where the sugar and ethanol business is very strong, there are even small pig farms that generate biogas from pig waste and use it to generate electric ity via a steam turbine. “So we at WEG offer a broad scope of solution possibilities. The

“W EG Brazil and Africa have made internal commit ments in terms of sus tainability, but we do not believe in telling customers what to do. Instead, we offer a comprehensive portfolio of modern, energy-efficient products for both generating power and efficiently using that power to drive industrial equipment. We are here to help clients with their transitions towards improved access to cleaner power, and the most efficient and cost-effective use of that power,” begins WEG Africa’s CEO, Eduardo Werninghaus. Electric motors, he says, typically consume around 60% of the power used by the indus trial sector, so a simple focus on switching to more energy-efficient IE3 or IE4 motors goes a long way towards meeting environmental commitments. But WEG can also offer a very

WEG’s flagship hybrid power project in the south of Brazil combines WEG wind turbines with a solar PV plant and battery storage.

14 ¦ MechChem Africa • July-August 2025