Electric cars and solar cooking: This is how Yujo Izakaya uses solar energy
29th September 2022
Since the commissioning of the 35 kWp solar system for the sustainable business community Yujo Izakaya in Kampala, Uganda, a few weeks ago, a lot has happened: In our new video, Hanif Rehemtulla shares what the solar power is used for and what he has planned for the future. Because one thing is certain: Yujo Izakaya is going to be as sustainable as possible.
Of course, the generated solar power is used to run Hanif Rehemtulla’s restaurant: the induction hob is now powered by the sun. But in order to be able to prepare food, the restaurant needs one thing above all: ingredients. In order to transport these to Yujo Izakaya as sustainably as possible, Hanif now trusts e-mobility and charges his electric car with solar power. In the future, more electric vehicles will be able to refuel using the sun. This probably makes this enPower.life solar system the first solar fuel station in Uganda – but certainly not the last!
Watch our video with Hanif and the solar plant now!
You prefer to read? Here is the transcript of the video:
Hey guys! Today you find us inside Yujo Izakaya and I’m going to tell you a little bit about what we’re going to be using the solar panels for and what about our plans. But first let’s go take a look up there so I can show you in person.
Hey guys! So here we are in front of our 35 kilowatt solar plant and let me tell you a little bit about what we are planning to use this for. So, first of, there are our are lights and our appliances which are electric and have already started pulling out some of this electricity from the solar panels and with our induction cooking plates which use electricity and magnets to directly heat up the pots we can reduce our
reliance on gas from the old tanks that we had installed. So that’s the first one.
The second one is something that we’ve just started doing just before Covid struck in Kampala where vehicles were not allowed to move around, motorcycles are not allowed to move around. We found a supply with electric bicycles and started doing some of our deliveries with one. The next step was to get an electric scooter which was destined for the dumpster and we managed to kind of renovate it with a rebuilt battery and now the newest phase is to be able to charge these two items with solar panels and as of last week we have acquired our first electric vehicle for some of our staff to move around; directors; and this will also be directly charged from the solar up top.
Electric mobility has started the last couple years with motorcycles and with the vehicle it’s pretty much one of the first cases around and we’re really excited about this technology and the launching of charging stations someday in the near future hopefully.
We hope that we can use this to add on to our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and make our business a bit more responsible. And all the tenants around especially, hopefully they’ll be able to benefit from some of these ideas and start taking advantage over the coming months. So yeah, here we are, that’s what we’re gonna do and that’s what the future has in store. Bye!
Video: Commissioning of the 2. enPower.life solar rooftop plant
September 2022
The time has come: We commissioned the second enPower.life solar system! – a 35 kWp rooftop system for the sustainable business community Yujo Izakaya. From now on, the system reliably supplies green solar power and supplies Yujo Izakaya with renewable energy at low cost. We thank our EPC partner EQUATOR SOLAR for the successful cooperation. Of course we were right there during the commissioning and captured the moment via camera so we can share a video from behind the scenes with you:
Yujo Izakaya is the name of the restaurant in the heart of Kampala run by Hanif Rehemtulla. And in addition to building his restaurant, Hanif has brought together several sustainable businesses that form the Yujo Izakaya business community. All of the companies that belong to Yujo Izakaya are designed for sustainability and are now benefiting from the new solar system. The solar system enables companies to act even more climate-friendly – and to save costs for electricity. Because the enPower.life solar solutions are cheaper for companies than electricity from the grid or diesel generators.
At this point we would also like to thank our impact investors who share our vision of making the world a more sustainable place. With your investment, you all contributed to the fact that we were able to successfully commission this solar system. We look forward to continuing to have you on board as an investor in order to be able to supply even more sustainable companies in Uganda with renewable solar energy.
