Rocla’s locally manufactured concrete cabins for use at photovoltaic farms located in the Northern Cape and the Free State, were awarded the Concrete Manufacturers Association Award for Excellence for the Innovation Category at a gala banquet held in Johannesburg during April 2016. Rocla’s Group Communications and Marketing Manager, Guinevere Thomas said “We are extremely proud to have won the Innovation Category at these prestigious CMA national bi-annual awards. At Rocla, we pride ourselves on innovative design and application using pre-cast concrete. With energy generation paramount in South Africa, the burgeoning photovoltaic farm sectors needed an innovative solution to house and safeguard the electronic components required at these installations and Rocla provided the solution.”
 
Rocla was praised by the CMA Judges for their ground breaking advancements in the use of pre-cast concrete in the manufacture of these concrete cabins which proved vandal proof and quick to assemble. Rocla delivered a total of 128 cabins, mass totaling 3,584 tonnes of concrete, manufactured and delivered on schedule at 1 cabin per day for 6 months, starting from July 2013 to January 2014. Each cabin has a mass of 28 tons, 8.7m long, 2.6m wide, 3.1m high an energy generating capacity of 1MW.

The CMA received 117 entries for consideration for the 2016 CMA Awards for Excellence, and the criteria adjudicated in respect of the Innovation Category included:

• Innovation in design using precast concrete
• Innovation in precast concrete application
• Innovate installation techniques
• Impact of product quality

 The CMA is the primary representative for the precast concrete industry, offering members the opportunity to receive benchmarked recognition through the CMA Mark and Accreditation system. This is awarded to members of the CMA who voluntarily meet the CMA’s stringent standard requirements.
 
Rocla is a long standing member of the CMA, and is a fully accredited member. Rocla is part of the IS Group of companies which includes Technicrete ISG and Ocon Brick.