Harnessing energy from the sun
IF you asked a friend to start a business in renewable energy (RE) in Malaysia eight years ago, you would have gotten a few laughs and never-ending questions. With that in mind, business owners mostly stayed away from RE.
However, this was not the case for Ko Chuan Zhen, Ryan Oh Zhi Kang and Poh Tyng Huei, co-founders of Plus Solar Systems Sdn Bhd, a total clean energy solutions provider, as they did all the above.
With the common goal to tackle the electricity consumption of buildings, the co-founders of Plus Solar took it upon themselves to solve this issue. As such, they started a business with the Energy Trilogy – Energy Storage, Energy Efficiency and Energy Generation, that would enable individuals to achieve optimum energy savings.
Investing nearly all their finances, Plus Solar began, with a few second-hand tables, laptops and sheer passion and determination. As the Malaysian Feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme had yet to be launched, the co-founders adapted to a niche industry, which led to making major adjustments to their everyday life, such as spending RM2 on lunch each day.
As the years went by, Plus Solar persisted with passion, industry knowledge and a high regard for top-notch customer service. Fast forward to date, the industry has matured where the market prices of solar components have reduced and government tax incentives have been implemented, benefiting their services and customers.
Slowly, Plus Solar gained recognition through media coverage and awards, especially the “Grand
Winner of the Star Outstanding Business Award (Soba)-rising Star 2015”.
Since becoming the Grand Winner of Soba-rising Star 2015, the company continues to gain recognition for their services and passion through awards such as “EY Entrepreneur of the Year-emerging Entrepreneur-top Nominee 2019”.
Today, Plus Solar has assisted over a hundred commercial and industrial buildings in making the switch to clean energy which include but are not limited to IKEA, KLIA, Sunway Sales Gallery, Proguard, PKT Logistics, Aident Corporation and Secret Recipe.
Currently, Plus Solar, an Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) service provider, has a project track record of 125MWP of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and large-scale solar PV power plants throughout Malaysia.
Additionally, Plus Solar’s growth is demonstrated by the increase in employee headcount from 20, in 2015, to its current headcount of 120 and counting.
In order to make RE more accessible, Plus Solar signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UOB Malaysia to mark their green partnership in catalysing the transformation of business owners to RE through marketing efforts and green financing solutions which include the U-solar programme – provide businesses with green financing to reduce the upfront investment for solar PV systems.
Not only is this an initiative to drive the nation towards higher adoption of RE, but one of many forces Plus Solar is utilising to drive towards sustainability.
■ For more details, look out for the advertisement in this Starspecial.