A worker stacks boxes at The Document Warehouse, which has grown from 1 to more than 50 employees since it opened its doors in 2006.

local utility. On weekends, the facility gives power back to the local grid. (Because of governmental red tape, the facility cannot yet sell the power for a profit.) Result: The company now pays about $280 U.S. per month for its power.

Looking ahead, the company expects the system to pay for itself in about 46 months.

“Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to sell it [excess

power] back into the grid, which means our electricity will be zero dollars because we will not pay the government or NamPower, but we will produce our own electricity,” Cohen said.

The Document Warehouse’s main facility offers storage for more than 370,000 standard archive boxes.

The PV project sparked a lot of local publicity. Local newspapers have written several stories about the company, drawing visitors to the building. The company already has more than 350 clients in Namibia and three other countries, and the free press has given Cohen and her colleagues a chance to tell new potential clients about the company’s services—a benefit the company hadn’t banked on.

“The most important one is that we save a lot of money,

and we will save even more in the future,” Cohen said. “Not in the near future, but maybe at a later date, we will be putting solar panels at the other two branches as well.” n

inFocus | Fall 2014

21