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.

enPower.life solar panels for Yujo Izakaya have arrived!

18th July 2022

We are so excited and humbled to announce that the solar panels, inverters, and mounting structures for the 35 kWp solar plant for sustainable business community Yujo Izakaya have arrived in Kampala!

We will shortly begin the installation of the solar plant in cooperation with our partner EQUATOR SOLAR. Transitioning to solar energy is a big step for Yujo Izakaya and CEO and founder Hanif Rehemtulla is excited to power his restaurant with clean energy soon. We also want to extend a warm THANK YOU to all our supporters and impact investors. Together, we are changing the energy landscape and contributing to a more sustainable world as outlined in the UN sustainable development goals.

Watch the short video with Hanif to see how excited he is!

One year at Aquarius Kigo Resort

27th June 2022

We are pleased to celebrate our project’s first year anniversary at Aquarius Kigo Resort. enPower.life commissioned the 28 kWp isolated grid solar plant at Aquarius Kigo Resort on the 26th of June 2021. Within the past 365 days, we have already contributed around 32 MWh of clean, affordable, and reliable solar energy into the resort’s daily consumption which resulted in 16.88 tons of CO2 savings equal to avoiding almost 67,740 km of a passenger car traveling. On this occasion, we also talked in a friendly interview with Mr. Fard Kutesa, the General Operational Manager of the resort, to hear his experience from the time the plant was installed until today. We invite you to watch this interview about their experiences and we remind you not to miss the last 5 minutes if you want to see the resort’s solar power plant and its components.

Enjoy watching!

 

enPower.life solar energy: A powerful solution to cushion spiking electricity prices in Uganda due to Ukraine war

21th April 2022

We have big news to share: enPower.life has ordered the solar panels and inverters for the 35 kWp solar plant for the sustainable business community Yujo Izakaya in Kampala, Uganda. We spoke to Hanif Rehemtulla, the founder and director of Yujo Izakaya. In the video he gives insights into how the war in Ukraine has affected the prices for electricity and wheat products in Uganda. As CEO of the Yujo Izakaya restaurant, after which the business community is named, he is looking forward to the upcoming installation of the solar plant: It will improve independence and help all companies to remain profitable, save costs, and lower CO2 emissions.

For everyone who is still considering investing in this project (and benefiting from the attractive interest rates): Join us now! You can find out more and invest sustainably here:

To the current sustainable investments

Prefer reading to watching a video? Sroll down for the transcript!

Video transcript

Hello again!

I’m Hanif from Yujo Izakaya. I’m reaching out to give you an update on the solar plant installation for Yujo Izakaya. We have some great news this week: the contract has been signed with Equator Solar [enPower.life’s partner company, specialized in the installation of solar plants in East Africa] for our roof – yay! The first funds have been collected and the orders for the solar panels and the inverter have been placed. If all goes well, we’ll have everything up on the roof in a few months, and we’re thrilled! We are really overjoyed that our solar plant is coming soon.

We are experiencing a lot of pressure on prices for various things for the Yujo Izakaya restaurant. The prices for wheat and wheat flour have risen sharply. A lot of the grains for Uganda and East Africa come from Ukraine. And so the Ukraine war affects the price of the flour that goes into our pasta, our dumplings, and other items on our menu. Prices have only just started to go up and I think they will continue to do so throughout the year.

Energy costs have been hit even harder; the oil and gas prices and the resulting electricity prices. This is due to the use of fossil fuels for electricity production in Uganda, and this has a significant impact on our energy prices. So the installation of this solar system will really make a big difference, for us and for the tenants throughout the site; to offset the amount of carbon we put into the environment and keep our costs down for all of our businesses. So we are very much looking forward to the enPower.life solar plant coming soon.

And for those of you who are still considering investing sustainably – we hope you will take the opportunity to participate in the last investment round. We are really looking forward to this project. The solar panels will be installed right here on this roof behind us. I’m recording from up here with the three roofs as you can see. Here above the brewery Banange Breweries and Yujo Izakaya is where everything will sit and all the electricity will be produced for us by the sun. See you soon, I’ll be back with more info soon.

Watch now: Installation of the enPower.life solar plant for the first 5-star eco hotel of Uganda

Join us and take a look behind the scenes and see exclusive footage from the construction of the enPower.life solar plant for the first 5-star eco hotel in Uganda, the Aquarius Kigo Resort. You will also learn about interesting details and background information, such as why the angle of the solar panels matters, and what the tourists from all around the world travel to Uganda for.

The 28 kW plant is a great success and reliably delivers affordable green energy. As a result, we’re saving a significant amount of CO2 and strengthen the local economy of the region with sustainable energy.

Enjoy watching!

The first enPower.life solar plant: Solar energy for eco hotel in Uganda.

 

 

The first enPower.life solar system will be installed on the roof of Uganda’s first 5-star eco-hotel: The Aquarius Kigo Resort in the Ugandan capital of Kampala will benefit from sustainable solar energy in the future. For this first solar energy project, enPower.life planned a 28 kWp solar system. The current developments in December 2020 show: The cooperation is starting faster than planned. In the video, hotel manager Nina Pirrwitz tells us about the cooperation with enPower.life.

 

Manager of the Aquarius Kigo Resort, Nina Pirrwitz:

“Our resort is under construction and we will be opening shortly. Of course we need a reliable power supply. However, it became apparent that the quality of the grid is significantly worse than expected. What we urgently need is a backup system. We are very much looking forward to working with enPower.life and installing the solar system. It is very important to us that we avoid environmentally harmful diesel generators, as our hotel concept is completely based on sustainability. Sustainability and environmental protection are key for the resort and therefore an environmentally friendly energy supply also plays an important role. Thus, a supply with solar power is ideal and a solar system on our own roof offers a reliable, safe, and environmentally friendly solution. In addition to reducing our carbon footprint, costs play an essential role. Through the cooperation with enPower.life, it is possible for us to finance a solar system. In addition, we can reduce our electricity costs by installing the solar system, since the solution from enPower.life is cheaper than electricity from the grid.”

For the installation of the solar system, enPower.life works together with the EPC company EQUATOR SOLAR.

16th February 2021