Hatchicks Corporation in Magalang, Pampanga runs on safe, clean energy from the sun via the solar PV system WeGen Energy Philippines installed. With 936 solar panels, the system will generate 10,669,492 kWh of solar power for the hatchery. The electricity output of the system will offset up to 30% of the hatchery's electricity consumption!
With heightened public awareness of the causes and impact of climate change, more and more businesses are resorting to more sustainable business process practices. Businesses whose owners possess environmental consciousness and concern are finding ways to make their companies and how they implement their different functions and processes become less damaging to the environment while remaining profitable.
On the other hand, customers are also appreciating efforts to ensure these sustainability efforts. Many prefer to support companies that utilize processes, programs, and campaigns that will ensure that their companies leave smaller carbon footprints. Products that also come in more earth-friendly and sustainable packaging are also being equated with social good and the companies that produce them improve their reputations.
This trend of going for sustainability and becoming more conscious about how business and other economic activities affect the climate and the environment is a positive development. One way to exercise this pro-climate awareness is by going solar, something that Hatchicks has done.
Egg farming is the practice of raising birds—such as chickens, ducks, and geese—to produce eggs for human consumption. The eggs used for eating are known as table eggs, but fertilized eggs can be hatched to grow chickens for their meat or other purposes.
Hatchicks raises and sells quality, healthy chicks for other companies which in turn raise them into chickens for either their meat or their eggs. As a hatchery, Hatchicks has different clients among established and well-known corporations.
By making the shift to solar, Hatchicks can take pride in its contribution to fighting climate change: its system will be able to mitigate carbon dioxide, the equivalent of 253,106 kg/year. This is equivalent to the 7,554 trees planted and their oxygen production.
Reliable Power a Constant and Urgent Concern
Hatchicks Supervisor Armando Malumpanon explained that achieving predictable, consistent, superior chick quality starts with ensuring that the needs of each chick embryo are consistently and uniformly met during incubation.
“The biggest expense for hatcheries and even poultry farms is electricity. It is also the most vital. We have to make sure that electricity supplies are always stable. We need power to continuously operate the fans and cooling systems that keep our hatcheries from heating up during hot weather. If these systems are interrupted for even just five minutes, there is a risk that the eggs will not hatch and/or the chicks that hatch will have abnormalities,” he said.
Mr. Malumpanon has been in the chick hatchery business for 10 years; he oversees Hatchicks’ facility in Pampanga and the other one in Davao.
The hatchery supervisor said that hatching chicks is labor intensive and requires 24/7 electricity. The first in the series of steps is incubation. Here, forced draft incubators are used to incubate fertilized eggs so they can hatch into live chicks. There are different types of incubators based on the heating source: the hot air incubator and the hot water incubator; or based on the fuel they use: they can be gas operated or oil operated.
The usual hatchery has many rooms where the eggs are incubated and hatched. Typical rooms are the hatchery rooms/ structures; the shower room; the hatching eggs receiving counter; the fumigation room; the egg holding (egg-cooler) room; the pre-incubation warming room; the setter room; the egg candling (dark) room; the hatcher room; the chick holding room; the washroom, and the clean room.
Mr. Malumpanon further said that there are five major considerations and processes involved in the incubation and hatching of poultry eggs. These are temperature; humidity; ventilation (oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and air velocity); the positioning of eggs; and turning of the eggs.
The sequences of hatchery operations followed in commercial hatcheries are securing hatching eggs; traying the hatching eggs; fumigation; cold storage; warming eggs before setting; loading the eggs; candling; transferring the eggs; pulling the hatches; hardening; grading the hatched chicks; determining the sex of the chicks; vaccinating them; delivering the chicks, and finally washing and cleaning the rooms and disposing of the waste materials.
Simply put, consistent and reliable electric power is very important for hatcheries because of the many processes that have to be maintained to ensure success.
“The solar PV system we now have will hopefully help us further ensure that,” he said.
In traditional hatcheries, diesel-run pumps and generators are used. Generators are known to produce toxic gases that are harmful both to the eggs and poultry attendants. Using solar power in poultry farms and hatcheries will mean less pollution and production systems that are free from fire hazards.
Based on the reckoning of energy experts, these are only 35 percent efficient. In contrast, renewable energy technologies are as high as 90 percent efficient. This is a big opportunity for energy cost-saving for hatcheries, and the environmental costs of diesel-run pumps are also significantly higher.
Financial Sense
Dr. Varella said that their decision to invest in a solar PV system makes “sound financial sense” and adds big value to the hatchery. “This is an investment that will continue to generate benefits both our company and for the environment. There’s satisfaction in the thought that the system will run for at least 40 years.
Investing in solar PV systems can be very expensive. Still, all the expense is recoverable through the considerable and consistent decrease in power costs month after month, year after year.
In the case of Hatchicks, since the system was first activated on July 13, 2022, it has as also generated an average of 26% of the company’s usual energy consumption. From July 13 to September 15, total system production reached 66.74 Mwh/66,704 Kwh. During the said period, the hatchery has been able to save P716,788 at the average rate of P10.74 kWh.
Dr. Varella said that they also want to initiate a similar PV project that will generate self-consumable electric power from solar energy in the Davao facility. They are also considering changing to LED lights to further increase the sustainability of the facility.
Selling solar to Agri-industrial companies
The Hatchicks account was finalized through the efforts of WeGen’s Regional Sales Manager for Region 3 Joelito Mercado. He said that apart from the economic benefits, from the very beginning of their sales pitch, the environmental benefits of going solar were part of the discussions with the Hatchicks management.
“Explaining the importance of renewable energy sources like solar is an intrinsic part of WeGen’s sales pitches. We are very much aware that the company’s mission and vision when it comes to sales includes helping inform and educate people on RE and the efforts that need to be done to mitigate climate change,” he said.
Joel said that they have a prepared sales pitch that revolves around the campaign for transition to clean energy and how every household, every business, and every institution can be part of it as a way to fight climate change.
“We explain that the continued use of fossil fuels such as coal, to generate electricity for our homes, offices, businesses, and entire industries is one of the reasons why we are now in a state of climate emergency. We elaborate not only on the energy cost savings that solar PV systems bring to its users but also on the importance of solar PV systems as tools to mitigate carbon emissions,” he said.
Joel said that in the beginning, many of WeGen’s clients were not interested in this aspect of going solar as they just want to focus on how to bring down their power bills. Still, in the course of the discussions with clients, the other important value of transitioning from electricity generated from coal-fired power plants becomes part of the conversation.
“Of course in the beginning we just talk about why companies should install solar PV systems on the rooftops of their warehouses, their offices, and even their manufacturing and assembly plants. The economic benefits are clear and easy to establish.
Installing a solar PV system is like paying your electricity bill in advance for at least 25 years of electricity, but at a reduced rate compared to the current electricity rates,” Joel said. “We tell them that these savings can have a tremendous impact on their business in many ways, and they can use the money to improve and expand the business.”
Still, in the course of the discussions with clients, the other important reason for transitioning from electricity generated from coal-fired power plants becomes part of the conversation.
“That’s when we get around to talking about climate change, what causes it, and what role electricity sources, generation, and consumption play in worsening the climate crisis. Those points are often an eye-opener for some clients. We then go deeper into talking about how, when companies use electricity from solar power, they can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and pollution by shifting to solar and lessening their reliance on fossil-fuel energy sources,” he said.
Joel also initiates conversations on how through the years, solar PV systems have become more competitive because of the continuous drop in component prices. They are improving in terms of energy conversion efficiency, and this also means the reduction of greenhouse gases.
For Hatchicks, Dr. Villela said that he was convinced by WeGen’s presentation of the benefits of solar, especially the part where the environmental benefits were explained and the positive impact a company like Hatchicks can make.
“Our decision to go solar is our small contribution to efforts to fight climate change. We want to install a similar system in our other facility in Davao so it too can be part of our efforts. The fact that we will also be cutting our electricity costs is a very good bonus, too. Our operations run 24/7, and any reduction in our electricity bill is very welcome. Even more welcome is the right to say that we as a company are also doing our part to help save the environment,” he said.
Addressing Technical Issues
Regarding problems and concerns that installing solar, Joel said there are some technical aspects to building the systems, but they are easy to address. One of them is the need to discuss solar PV system installation projects with utility companies that have jurisdiction in the areas where the projects will be built. He said in their experience, some distribution utilities (DU) like power cooperatives.
“We make it a point to inform the local utility companies like the power cooperatives before we begin installation work. This process can be sometimes critical because we need to make sure that the local grid can handle the electricity that the solar PV system generates. This is especially true in cases where the system has batteries and is producing more than is being consumed. In the case of poultry farms, there are periods of high usage followed by lower usage,” he explained.
Joel also explained that another important consideration is solar panel placement. In the case of Hatchicks Corporation, the solar PV system is ground mounted because the rooftop of the hatching facility cannot bear the weight of all the panels. More importantly, installing the panels on the roof would have affected the development and quality of the eggs.
According to agriculture experts in the United States, the rule of thumb when it comes to space for ground-mounted systems is between three to five acres of land per megawatt of solar panels.
Joel said that WeGen’s solar engineers make it a point to ensure that the site chosen for the panels has no shading from trees or buildings. “We also clear the rocks because we never know when accidents happen – if someone accidentally kicks a rock and it goes airborne, it might land on the panels and cause damage,” he said.
Another preparatory step that was taken for the Hatchicks system was the soil test.
Conventional, utility-scale solar energy infrastructure is land-intensive and can have negative effects on the environment.
First, the mounted solar arrays modify landscapes during the process of site preparation: all native vegetation has to be removed, the ground surface of the soil has to be graded, and fill has to be added and compacted. Such changes to the soil can affect its physical, chemical, and biological properties. In this way, the soil’s moisture and nutrient dynamics will also change.
Without correct soil preparation and testing, the ability of the soil to support vegetation and various associated ecological processes will also be negatively affected. Building the foundations of the solar PV structure will also cause carbon and nitrogen emissions, so mindfulness must be part of the process of putting up the foundation and excavation to minimize the emission. Efforts must also be made to ensure that the soil will still be able to revegetate.
The soil test is also a way to determine how the installation processes of digging and building the foundations of the system can be done with minimum soil erosion.
According to solar PV system experts, the panel arrays can also help in the redistribution of soil moisture. In cases of systems built on agricultural lands, planting strategies should be explored to ensure that there can still be eventual plant growth. The structure’s potential to co-locate vegetation should also be determined.
Commissioning the System
WeGen officially turned the system over the to Hatchicks in a simple but heartfelt ceremonial activity on August 23, 2022. It was a rainy and windy afternoon, and to prevent contaminating the facility and because of the threat of Avian flu, the turnover was conducted in the front gates of the facility instead of the original chosen site inside the facility grounds fronting the ground-mounted solar arrays.
WeGen VP Orly lauded Hatchicks for its decision to go solar. “We are only too happy to partner with Hatchicks Corp. on this renewable energy project. The hatchery has begun its journey towards sustainability and lowering its carbon footprint for the good of the planet. By making the shift to solar, Hatchicks can take pride in its contribution to fighting climate change: its system will be able to mitigate the equivalent of 253,106 kg/year of carbon dioxide” he said.
Hatchicks CEO Villela for his part said that it has always been his dream to “solarize” the Hatchicks facility. He said that he was aware of the need to protect the environment.
“We want our customers and the public to know that we are making an effort to contribute to the fight against climate change by lowering our carbon footprint. We’re now more informed about the long and short-term effects of cutting our energy consumption by lessening our reliance on fossil fuels. We’re happy that our facility will be producing fewer carbon emissions even as we see no decrease in productivity or the operations of the various equipment in our facility, primarily the incubators,” he said.
In the long term, Dr. Villela expressed hope that the reduction in Hatchicks’ emissions and decrease in their power costs will continue so that they can install a similar system in Davao, or add batteries to their existing system to further maximize the benefits of solar.