Nestlé Lipa coffee nursery goes solar

The Nestlé Lipa Integrated Coffee Center (LICC) invests in clean energy.

Confronted with an unstable power supply, the Nestlé Lipa Integrated Coffee Center (LICC) has seized the opportunity to make its operations greener and more reliable by installing a pilot solar system.

The system provides power for both irrigation and misting of coffee plantlets in its nursery while using 100 percent recycled effluent from the company’s Lipa factory.

The LICC is a model facility for farmer training, demonstrations and trials, plantlet production, and sludge composting, with a station for buying coffee beans from farmers. The nursery can produce 300,000 to 500,000 Robusta coffee plantlets a year.

The Agri Services and Corporate Engineering groups of Nestlé Philippines initiated the effort to set up a grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) system for the nursery that was installed in a record 33 days.

A local solar company, One Renewable Energy Enterprise, assisted in designing and conceptualizing the project.

The generated power supplies electricity to the pumps that provide irrigation and mists the coffee plantlets.

Additionally, the power produced goes through the grid and is used by LICC’s administrative office for air conditioning and lighting when the irrigation pumps are not running.

The following key outcomes have been reached: Reduced dependence on grid energy by generating an estimated annual yield of 7,954 KWh; mitigation of CO2 emissions by approximately 4.31 tons per year; and estimated cost savings of P87,494 per year or approximately $1,760.