200 kW SPP saves Pavlyk M furniture company almost EUR20,000 in first 3.5 months of operation - founder

A 200 kW solar power plant installed by the manufacturer of tables and chairs Pavlyk M from Zakarpattia saved it EUR19,400 in three and a half months of operation, said the founder and CEO of the furniture company, Yosyf Pavlyk.

"In 3.5 months, our solar power plant saved us EUR19,400. I believe that this project and all the calculations for it not only met our expectations, but also exceeded them," Pavlyk said in an interview with the Energy Reform online portal as part of the special project OSCHADlyva Enerhetyka (Efficient Energy) about energy-efficient cases of businesses and individuals, implemented jointly with Oschadbank.

Pavlyk noted that the factory's consumption is approximately 300 kW, of which 200 kW on a good sunny day is covered by the solar power plant.

"It turns out that our batteries on the roof of the workshops save us electricity at the expense of the sun," Pavlyk summarizes.

As the entrepreneur explains, for a growing company, there is always a lack of working capital, so installing a solar power plant was a secondary issue.

At the same time, according to him, over the past two years the furniture market has become much more complex, and it is not easy to compete with manufacturers from Poland, Bulgaria and China, who have access to cheap loans.

This forced furniture makers to review their cost structure and look for ways to reduce the cost of production. During the analysis of costs, it became obvious that over the past two years electricity has become one of their key items in production.

"It was then that we learned from the company's long-time partner, Oschadbank, that there is a program that allows us to attract credit funds on favorable terms, especially for exporters with a good reputation, stable turnover and foreign exchange earnings," says Pavlyk, noting that in this way the company received a UAH 2 million loan, making its own contribution of slightly less than UAH 900,000.

Pavlyk draws attention to the fact that the project's goal was primarily to reduce the cost of production, and not to provide uninterrupted power sources, and the solar power plant project interested him very much, in particular, with a payback period of approximately 1.5 years.

"Everything came together: our expectations, the bank's capabilities, and the contractor's technical capabilities. We got it. As planned, on March 1, 2025, our solar power plant with a capacity of 200 kW started operating. Everything went almost perfectly," the entrepreneur shares his experience.