Garment factories turn to local tech to slash fan power use by up to 65pc

Bangladesh’s garment industry is turning to home-grown technology to cut factory electricity consumption, with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Industrial Development and Engineering Company (BIDEC) joining forces to convert conventional ceiling fans into energy-saving brushless direct-current (BLDC) fans.

The two organisations signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday at the BGMEA office in Dhaka to promote BIDEC’s patented technology among garment factories across the country.

BGMEA Vice-President Vidiya Amrit Khan and BIDEC Chief Executive Officer Kazi Mohammad Ibrahim signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

The initiative could offer garment manufacturers a relatively low-cost route to reducing electricity bills while accelerating the industry’s decarbonisation drive, according to BGMEA officials.

BGMEA has been testing the technology in member factories for several months, with trials involving different types of conventional fans across more than 42 factories showing energy-efficiency gains of around 47 per cent to 65 per cent.

“These results give us confidence that this technology can create meaningful energy savings for our members,” Vidiya Amrit Khan said after signing the agreement.

“We see this as an opportunity to support factories in their energy optimisation and decarbonisation journey while also strengthening the role of Bangladeshi innovation in sustainable industrial development,” she said.

Under the agreement, BGMEA member factories will receive special pricing from BIDEC for the upcycled BLDC fans. The technology comes with a five-year guarantee, while the investment is expected to offer a potential payback period of around 1.5 to two years, depending on individual factory operations and electricity consumption.

The technology essentially gives existing conventional capacitor-type ceiling fans a new lease of life by converting them into more energy-efficient BLDC fans, reducing the need to replace entire fan units.