Our second guest in the South Asia series is Bhutanese Ugyen Tshomo, Founder & CEO of Nim Gangsha Solar, a solar company based in Bhutan. The company is aiming to contribute to Bhutan’s reputation as a sustainable and green country. If you are curious, then listen in.
Conversation Overview
Ugyen is passionate about the environment and is a graduate of the Royal Thimphu College. It was a pleasure to speak with Ugyen.
Connect with Ugyen
Conversation Highlights
- “I am an accidental entrepreneur…we have organisation here that helps entrepreneurs get investors. I went to one of their events to hear their stories and what happened was that I found the platform very interesting. I ended up pitching my college research idea on solar.” Ugyen T. [4:52]
- “When I was in college I was doing research on solar and found out we had so much potential in this area. We are a country who is very concerned in renewable energy but our government was doing more in hydropower. I considered that solar was free energy. I did not see anyone giving serious thought into it.” Ugyen T. [7:34]
- “We Bhutanese are too dependent on hydropower and we need to seek out other alternatives.” Ugyen T. [9:16]
- “When I decided to go for solar, I saw that thousands of LPG gases was being imported from India. I thought solar could solve this problem and prevent us from importing so much. We have a solar cooking system that we can use because right now we are paying way too much money for LPG.” Ugyen T. [11:05]
- “I thought we could go for solar street lights because we are basically letting the sun pay our bills.” Ugyen T. [14:30]
- “There is a huge misconception that solar needs the hot scorching sun to generate energy. When we go to market we always have to explain that PVs can be activated with minimal light” Ugyen T. [15:12]
- “People are now encouraged to go for other alternative energy generating business after his majesty’s recent speech on national day and now we have competition coming up.” Ugyen T. [27:32]
- “What happens in the hospital when the lights go off? Our product can also act as a back-up plan for hydro power.” Ugyen T. [30:17]
- “I have not gone to share entrepreneurial stories to other countries but I was invited by the Ministry of Human Resources and they called me to give an entrepreneurial talk. I shared my many failures.” Ugyen T. [38:30]
Resources Mentioned
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