Solar power capacity has increased by more than 11 times in the last five years from 2.6 GW in March,2014 to 30 GW in July, 2019.
The tone for this year’s climate-friendly budget was already set by PM Narendra Modi last November when he announced ‘The Panchamrit’ (five promises) at COP26 at Glasgow to meet India’s ambitious climate targets. This was followed by the ‘Pro-Planet People’ approach announced by him while addressing the virtual World Economic Forum’s Davos Summit in January this year. The government’s plans, initiatives, and projects are well-aligned to deliver the larger and ambitious target of boosting 280GW of installed solar capacity by 2030. The aggressive allocation of 19,500cr for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) announced this year is a huge boost for players who are in the segment of product development for harnessing solar energy. Recently, India achieved 5th global position in solar power deployment by surpassing Italy. Solar power capacity has increased by more than 11 times in the last five years from 2.6 GW in March,2014 to 30 GW in July, 2019. Presently, solar tariff in India is very competitive and has achieved grid parity.
Sunpower Renewables is a renewable energy solutions company which claims to work towards providing environment friendly and technology-enabled energy storage solutions. The company has developed solar energy solutions. On the occasion of World Sustainable Energy Day, FinancialExpress.com’s Tarun Bhardwaj caught up with Rahul Kale, Founder and CEO, Sunpower Renewables and discussed the renewable energy sector in India and more. Excerpts:
Can you tell us about the different product offerings and their application that consumers can use to reduce their carbon footprint?
Over the years, increased human activities have resulted in spiking our carbon footprint and thus, deteriorating our climate. However, this damage can be reduced significantly by switching to a cleaner source of energy. Customers today need more versatility and independence in their power generation. We at Sunpower Renewables analyze customer needs to offer a wide and exclusive range of energy storage products. Our products include handheld units of smaller capacities as well as larger units that can be used for residential, commercial, and industrial applications. Although the application of the product varies as per the size and capacity of the unit but the product versatility allows the same unit to be used in multiple scenarios. For example, The unit which is used to power an oxygen concentrator can even power your home and appliances like TV, fridge, etc.
A unit’s Size and capacity depend on how much load you can put on the unit. The smaller units can also be used for commercial and industrial purposes depending on what it is trying to power. We have a whole range of handheld products and appliances that can be used in the house or across different locations.
What is Sunpower Renewables doing to encourage consumers to use such energy saving products?
We offer and develop products that encourage people to move away from traditional fossil fuel based options. We promote energy efficiency through our range of products and additionally create more awareness about it through various initiatives. Energy saving is one of the main and most effective ways of cutting carbon emissions from one’s life. Its impact isn’t realized overnight but it plays a crucial role in the implementation of long-term benefits on our environment. Our primary focus is to create an informative and educational background around energy-saving products. We educate people on how they can switch to renewable products to reduce their carbon footprint. A lot of people are already aware of it but they don’t know how they can incorporate it into their daily lives and thus, we instruct them on how switching to a greener future is an easy process and not difficult and time-consuming.
As a part of the awareness-building exercise, we organize camps to reach a larger consumer base and increase their knowledge around the subject along with demonstrating our product usage. We have observed an increasing awareness around energy conservation amongst the younger population, so, we arrange training programs for schools and children so that they understand the benefits of renewable energy at a very early age. This also helps in developing passion among children and encouraging them to pay more attention to energy conservation. There are calculators available on which the customers can calculate how much carbon emission they have managed to cut from their lives by using the products.
What kind of research goes into making these products for household use?
India serves as a large market for domestic use products. However, there’s still a need to inculcate the usage of energy-efficient products in people’s daily routines. Keeping this in mind, we spend a lot of time understanding what the customers want and understanding their requirements around it. There are quite a few levels and layers of research. We take several customer feedback on where they are facing an issue, the solution to which evolves from a problem statement that we create. It includes the biggest pain point of the customer and how can we solve that by taking care of the clean energy part. Once we have developed a pain point, then we need to see what solutions are available or what needs to be developed to reach that solution. We try to develop a solution which is not just technically superior but also commercially cheaper so that it results in cost saving for the customer.
It includes things like where do they use the units and at what time do they use them the most. For example: if there’s a power cut in the apartment, and you were on a conference call, you are most likely to get a disruption in your wi-fi connection for a couple of minutes. To prevent that, we have products that can power units of such critical usage.
Are any new products in the pipeline?
There are a couple of products that we are going to develop, one is our Thor unit, which is a more powerful unit with its functionality in the form of extendable batteries. This particular unit can also be managed through a mobile device. We are looking to introduce products that can help in better integration with the new age devices like smartphones, smart homes, etc. The larger units which can be used for residential as well as commercial weigh around 50 to 70 kilos and can be easily wheeled out. Apart from this, our focus is also around developing units that are not only portable but can also be used to charge your vehicle on the go for the last mile connectivity.
What is the total revenue of the company? And what are the plans for the Indian market?
Sunpower Renewables currently has a total revenue of $150 million. Since its foray into India in 2018, the company has been growing at over 40% Y-o-Y and has sold around 20,000 units. We want to go progressively in the Indian market. We are looking to increase our reach in both B2B and B2C channels. We want to educate our customers and increase awareness about the uses of our product which will help in India’s transition from a fossil-based economy to a cleaner economy and reduce the usage of diesel for energy power back up.
Most of such energy saving products are expensive. What is SPR doing to make it more affordable?
Keeping the fact in mind that India is a cost-sensitive market and many people believe that opting for a cleaner source of energy is costly, we model the financial benefits of using the products to the customers. Even though they might think that the product is very expensive, in reality, when they compare it to the diesel alternatives, they are actually three times cheaper. They look at the eight or nine-month payback on the diesel product compared to a ten-year life span on our product. The next part is to understand how people do a battery to battery comparison. Most people compare a lead-acid battery to a lithium-ion battery. So, a 1 KW lead-acid and a 1 KW lithium-ion battery are not the same and when you take a cost comparison of that, our products come with a longer life with much more efficiency and less maintenance. Our products come with an all-inclusive cost as it has zero installation and zero maintenance cost. I think creating awareness and educating the customers is the most important step to make them convert to use energy-saving products.
