Royal Can Industries Co (RCI), Thailand's largest food packaging manufacturer, installed a solar rooftop to cut its power bill by 22-24% per year.
RCI's solar rooftop has a power-generating capacity of three megawatts, the largest capacity at a single site in the country, with an investment budget of 100 million baht.
Located in Krathum Baen district, Samut Sakhon, the site has 9,142 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels installed over 17,400 square metres.
"This solar rooftop can generate 3.6 billion kilowatts-hour [units] a year, helping RCI lower power consumption from 8 billion units annually," said Thawat Thanawatcharangkul, managing director.
"RCI is poised to continue energy-saving activities after investing five years ago in heat recovery and district-cooling projects, also known as reusing heat waste from production process."
Nortis Energy Co, a developer for renewable power projects, was the engineering, procurement and construction provider for RCI.
In July, Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc (CPF) announced it would install solar rooftops on 34 food production plants nationwide, with a total capacity of 40MW.
CPF set aside 1.4 billion baht to install 120,000 solar PV panels on a combined 230,000 sq m.
Mr Thawat expects to break even from the solar rooftop within two years thanks to incentives from the Board of Investment, without which the break-even period would have been five years.
He said RCI's power consumption cost accounts for 10% of expenses, while 80% of costs are from metal sheets, the price of which is determined by the global market.
"Trimming energy costs is the easiest method to offset metal sheet costs. Metal sheets require investment in innovative packaging design that emphasises lower steel sheet volume but enhances efficiency," said Mr Thawat.
He expects RCI's revenue in 2019 to grow by 12% to 3 billion baht from 2.7 billion this year as demand for food consumption remains very healthy.
The facility in Samut Sakhon can produce 30,000 tonnes of thin plate per year.
Founded in August 1979, RCI is the diversified business arm of Royal Foods Co, the producer of mackerel in tomato sauce under the Three Lady Cooks brand. RCI is the packaging supplier.
During the past two decades, RCI has developed a business strategy including in-house packaging supplier and original equipment manufacturer.
RCI has both domestic and foreign customers.
Its packaging products comprise many types such as normal cans, two- and three-piece cans, easily-opened cans, spoon-opened cans and plastic-covered cans.
The company's latest innovation is quick-peel cans that can be easily opened by children, women and elderly.
"The quick-peel cans have a lower cost and higher sales price," said Mr Thawat.