Industrial Bank approved a 10- million loan for Shenzhen Henglihua Cleaning Services Co., Ltd. (“Shenzhen Henglihua”) in April 2007 to finance its upgrading of the laundry system to achieve higher energy efficiency. The loan will help the borrower retrofit its laundry system, which will result in lower consumption in fuel, electricity, and water, and reduce its cost in labor and operation. This is the first energy efficiency loan granted to service sector under IFC CHUEE program.
Shenzhen Henglihua was established in 1999 to provide centralized laundry services to large companies, such as Shenzhen Foxconn Group, and hotels. It also offers logistics services, including safeguarding and cleaning of dormitories in industrial parks. Thanks to its technical innovation and business acumen, this company has turned laundry into a “low-cost-but-high-threshold” industry, realizing economy of scale through “centralized laundry”. According to some statistics, “centralized laundry” saves 64% of electricity, 60% of fuel and 25% of water. This Company’s advantage in low-cost and high-efficient centralized laundry enables it to offer its service at the price lower than other laundries in Shenzhen.
Shenzhen Henglihua’s plan to upgrade its laundry system to save energy and water, reduce operation cost, and keep its competitive edge includes the following: 1. Frequency converters are added to the motors driving laundry machines so that the work speed of the motors could be adjusted automatically to suit different laundry workload. The introduction of frequency converters and the separation of washing process from tumble dryer lead to less consumption of electricity and water. 2. Boilers are modified so that the flue gas is used to directly heat the air to dry clothes while in the old fashion steam was the media receiving heat from boilers and then generating hot air for clothe drying. Recycling of hot air is another feature of the new system. The boiler retrofitting contributes 30% of energy saving. These measures could dramatically reduce the laundry provider’s consumption in fuel, power and water, fulfilling its aim in GHG reduction. According to estimation, this technical upgrading reduces production cost of 4.9 million yuan, including labor, and CO2 emissions of 7188 tons, and saves energy of 2609 tce every year. This project wins the recognition of IFC CHUEE technical experts and Industrial Bank as well.
It has been traditionally assumed that energy efficiency projects could be found only in industrial area, i.e. the second industry. In fact, energy consumption in service sector has been on the rise in recent years, and the contribution of tertiary industry to energy consumption in large cities is forming a phenomenal portion. There are many energy efficiency projects in this area. Special service business, e.g. laundry, potentially has energy efficiency projects to save power, gas and oil. Hotels, restaurants and office buildings are good places for green lighting, heating, and cooling projects to be implemented. The approval of Shenzhen Henglihua’s project demonstrates to energy users in service sector the importance of energy saving work and showcase investors the energy efficiency potentials in this industry.
