Impact Stories

Powering Grape and Plum Orchards with Solar Energy

The fragrance of plum blossoms and grapevines fills the air as Lasha Jintcharadze, Director of Techno Agro, walks through the rich, fertile land of the Gardabani district in Georgia. 

“It has been just two years since I launched this business, in the midst of strict COVID regulatory lockdowns in 2020, and I am so proud of how much we have achieved so far,” Lasha Jintcharadze reminisces.  

“Techno Agro” owns land with plum orchards on 40 hectares of land and a vineyard on 30 hectares. The company owns the refrigerator storage facility to store harvested fruits. Their main operations include the storage and sale of fruits grown in their own garden. The company has steadily been growing but electricity consumption was eating away at their profit margins.  

 

“I want to make this business as successful as possible, and that means finding more innovative ways to become more sustainable for future growth,” remarks Lasha. 

Georgia has massive renewable energy potential, with most opportunities arising from hydropower production, but with over 250 days of sunshine in a year, solar power is an excellent choice for businesses seeking to supplement their electricity consumption from renewable energy sources.  

Thanks to the Green Advisory program managed by the Green for Growth Fund Technical Assistance Facility, Techno Agro was able to receive technical expertise on how to replace its electricity consumption by using solar panels; which included developing the design of the solar panel system, and covering the installation costs. Thanks to this support, Techno Agro was able to receive a loan enabled by the GGF through its long-term partner TBC Bank, to install 136.5KW solar panels on the roof of the 800m2 storage facility. Now, the energy generated through the panels storage will be used for refrigerators and irrigation and exchanged with the grid through net-metering systems when there is an excess of generated electricity. This has resulted in the company reducing their annual expenses by 7-8%.  

“By making our business more energy efficient, I know my business can sustain and optimize operations despite what crisis may come. In fact, we plan to even add heating pipes under the solar panels to help defrost now faster in the cold Georgian winters, and perhaps even expand our crops to include cherries in the next harvest,” remarks Mr. Jintcharadze smiling.