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Businesses can’t go wrong with renewable energy
Author: Rajesh Kumar, the executive director of Oxygas Limited.
What you need to know:
- Our bills had always been astronomical. However, with the solar alternative now in place, we have seen our costs come down and we are no longer afraid of shocks to our bottom line.
For close to 28 years now, Oxygas Limited has been involved in the manufacture of medical and industrial gases.
It is one sector that perhaps many Ugandans have no or very little knowledge about, yet it is so crucial in so many ways, especially to the health sector.
Thus, this places me in a sector – heavy manufacturing - where energy is a key driver and a dependent factor of production.
In manufacturing, the availability of energy should never be a question. It must be available, not just for 12 hours in a production cycle but 24/7 because of variance in hours of production.
However, availability is not enough. Energy must be affordable and within limits that do not affect product prices.
If you have been critical, our energy generated from the grid is not only costly but unreliable.
For a long time, the cost of energy has eaten into margins in the industrial sector, which has required many in the sector to engage in some hard thinking.
A few years ago, just like some other peers in manufacturing, Oxygas ventured into green energy.
Our aims were many but with a key focus on exploring smarter ways of doing business that are not only affordable but friendly to the environment.
The investment has ensured that we install a fully solar-powered factory that is energy-independent with very minimal reliance on grid supply has reduced sharply.
Of course, the initial investment is relatively high, but the long-term benefits are innumerable.
For instance, we do not, apart from routine maintenance costs, spend on replenishing the system that has been automated to tap energy from the sun and wind.
The system has an installed direct current electrical capacity of 352 kilowatts per hour with a nominal alternate current output capacity of 280 kilowatts.
The direct current side of the plant consists of a 768P-Type mono-crystalline half-cell solar modules module.
We are really motivated by this investment. Our eyes are far and set for any new challenge, having already tested the benefits, the biggest of which include, a sizable reduction in our energy bill.
As a business, we use a lot of electricity to power equipment and lighting systems.
Our bills had always been astronomical. However, with the solar alternative now in place, we have seen our costs come down and we are no longer afraid of shocks to our bottom line that comes with an increase in the cost of power.
Solar energy has given us the leverage to believe that the cost of power is primarily in our control.
Beyond this, the value of our property has risen because of increased energy efficiency.
We have also seen a reduction in carbon emissions. In the last decade, the world has been shifting to smarter energy with the desire to reduce the carbon footprint that continues to cause havoc across the globe.
To us, this is a drive in the right direction toward a path of sustainable business practice.
We believe we cannot go wrong if we rightly invest in smarter energy. The future is green energy, which is sustainable and renewable.
The initial investment might be high, but for a long time, it is going to be cheaper than any available alternative.
Once you install the system, the rest comes at a very low cost or nothing at all.
*Rajesh Kumar, the executive director of Oxygas Limited.
