The Rex Group of Companies tapped Greenheat Corp. to build a 178.5-kWp solar rooftop at its office in Quezon City, becoming the first publishing house in the Philippines to go solar.
Greenheat, a solar solutions provider, installed the 595-photovoltaic module solar power plant that can generate up to 216,036 kilowatt-hours in its first year of operation, displacing Rex’s power consumption by 20 percent.
Greenheat, which installed the solar rooftop in 155 days, said Rex’s solar energy initiative would reduces carbon emission by 108 metric tons a year. It is like having 1,080 adult trees planted within its vicinity, it said.
“We cannot reduce the impact of climate change without transforming global energy systems, but today, we have the unique opportunity to transform not only our company but society as well,” said Rex Printing chief operating officer Don Timothy Buhain.
The solar power plant is a part of Rex’s energy conservation and efficiency program that institutionalizes the practice of saving energy using available technologies.
“As a company whose core business is to produce books and with paper as its raw material, the solar power plant is definitely a worthwhile project,” said Rex Group chairman and president Dominador Buhain.
Manufacturing companies have the most to gain from going solar because of the nature of their business, according to Greenheat director Glenn Tong.
“Your operations never stop and you have a constant power usage, so by being the pioneer in using this system, Rex is showing that this is the way of the future for the country,” said Tong.