The recent Research Finding Sharing and Power Hour featured insightful presentations on renewable energy and its benefits for industries.
Mr. Sudhindra Sharma from IDA initiated the session with a presentation on the research findings. Following this, Mr. Anil Parajuli, Gham Power’s GRIPS 2 Project Manager, emphasized the critical need for industries to adopt green practices and transition to renewable energy sources. Mr.Naresh Bhatta, a Project Engineer at Gham Power, then provided a detailed cost-benefit analysis of solar energy, highlighting its long-term importance and advantages. The event saw a total of 35 participants, primarily comprising industrialists, with some representation from the media.
An in-depth analysis of energy use, challenges, and opportunities across micro, small, medium, and large industries and enterprises in Nepal. The study surveyed 614 establishments across six industrial clusters: Biratnagar-Itahari, Kathmandu, Birgunj-Pathlaiya, Pokhara, Bhairahawa-Butwal, and Nepalgunj-Kohalpur.
Nepal faces significant environmental and economic vulnerabilities. It is ranked as the 4th most vulnerable to climate change, 11th most prone to earthquakes, and 30th most susceptible to flood risk. Unchecked emissions will lead to increased operational costs, a loss of conscious consumer interest, reduced financing options (with climate change-based financing expected to rise to $4 trillion by 2030), and potential emission-related export penalties, such as the UK’s carbon tax on imports by 2027.
Conversely, green initiatives offer substantial advantages: they allow industries to “leapfrog” in areas like manufacturing, access newer markets, compete with larger manufacturing hubs, and build a unique brand for their products. While Nepal’s electricity largely comes from clean hydropower (60-70%) and is comparatively cheaper, reliability is a major concern. This leads to heavy reliance on diesel generators, which contribute to increasing CO2 emissions (a 100 kVA generator emits 13.14 tonnes of CO2 per year). Nepal imported over $2 billion in fuel in 2019, and despite significant energy imports during the dry season, power crises persist in industrial areas. Renewable energy, especially solar, is becoming cheaper than grid electricity and provides crucial reliability during low hydropower production periods.
While solar PV offers immediate financial savings, it cannot fully displace diesel, provide immediate response during outages, or solve power quality issues. To address these limitations, Gham Power is introducing GRIPS 2, an industrial-scale smart grid technology designed for generator displacement. The project at Laxmi Steel Factory in Sunwal, Nepal, features a 2 MW / 4 MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and 1 MWp PV. This initiative is projected to curb 2,800 tonnes of carbon, displace 1,000 kiloliters of diesel, and generate $1.3 million in financial savings.
Conclusion
The event underscored that embracing green energy is not just an environmental imperative but a strategic business decision for Nepalese industries. Gham Power highlighted the economic benefits and reliability that solar solutions offer, and further demonstrated their commitment to comprehensive energy solutions with the introduction of the GRIPS 2 project, which aims to provide complete diesel displacement and enhanced power quality. The few young industrialists were interested in solar energy and battery energy storage systems and also seeked into energy audit services.
Contributed by – Anil Parajuli, GRIPS 2, Project Manager