These 5 solar energy startups are innovating in the renewable energy space
In the past few years, many solar energy startups have been working to innovate in the renewable energy space to reduce the use of natural resources.
Renewable energy has always been an integral part of India’s growth, solar has become key to our growing energy needs. Solar power systems derive clean and pure energy from the sun, and help combat greenhouse gas emissions.
The government of India has already come out with an ambitious renewable energy goal of 175 GW by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030, and solar will play the main role in this. And a collaborative approach to scale innovative solar energy solutions is the need of the hour.
In the past few years, many startups have emerged in this space, working towards scaling renewable energy sources and reducing the use of natural resources and its impact on the environment. In addition, they are providing end-to-end solutions to the market and the individuals.
YourStory list a few startups who have brought various innovations in this space.
ZunRoof
Gurugram-based
is solving energy issues by leveraging unutilised rooftops of houses, offices to set up panels to tap solar energy.The founders, Pranesh Chaudhary and Sushant Sachan, realised that electricity expenses were a huge monthly outflow for all Indian households, and decided to solve this problem.
In 2016, the duo started ZunRoof, a home-tech company, powered by a mix of image processing, virtual reality, IoT, and data analytics.
Till date, the startup has assessed over 250,000 homes, designed more than 30,000 rooftop solar systems across 75+ cities in India. It has installed 15 MW+ of rooftop solar and 50,000+ IoT devices.
The clean energy startup claims to have grown 3-4X year-on-year and hit $1 million in monthly revenue in February 2020.
MYSUN
Launched in 2016,
is an end-to-end solar rooftop solar solutions provider. The startup is not into manufacturing solar panels but acts as a complete service provider. To this end, it has tied-up with several manufacturers for the procurement of solar systems.MYSUN has completed solar projects for corporations like Du Pont and Godrej, and a number of SMEs across different states.
Founded by Gagan Vermani, the Delhi-based technology platform provides rooftop solar energy solutions for industry, SMEs/MSMEs, and homes. Gagan claims MYSUN has more than 80,000 registered customers, spread across commercial, residential, and retail spaces.
Oorjan
A roof-top solar platform system,
offers solutions to set up and maintain solar panels for households and businesses and aims to take solar energy to the maximum number of people.To that end, it offers flexible design options, and most importantly, helps secure financing.
Founded in November 2014 by IIT Bombay alumni Roli Gupta and Gautam Das, Mumbai-based Oorjan is operational across 14 states in India with more than 1,000 customers.
AP Solar Works
Indore-based
provides cost-effective solar solutions to make people self-dependent for their power usage.Founded in 2016 by Akshay Gupta and Pankaj Yadav, it provides solar rooftop systems to domestic, commercial, and industrial clients to help them generate electricity through the installation of its solar panels.
In a previous conversation with YourStory, Akshay said, “We are promoting the use of renewable energy as India still depends on conventional sources such as coal, which is not only depleting but also creates pollution. Apart from this, electricity continues to remain a problem in several villages and districts in India. People also face problems such as frequent load shedding, unstable power, and high charges.”
The cleantech startup claims to make a yearly revenue of Rs 3.5 crore. AP Solar Works also received the State Leadership Award for Best Solar Rooftop Company in MP by solar industry publication, SolarQuarter, in 2019.
URON Energy
Ahmedabad-based solar energy startup
offers end-to-end solar solutions from concept till commissioning to clients across corporates, residentials, and government.Founded in October 2019 by Urvish Dave, Khrushendu Choksi and Raaj Patel, the startup aims to become a quality player in the solar energy segment and provide utmost transparency to customers.
“Everything seems fine once the solar plant is commissioned, but nobody looks at how well it functions after two years or whether it is generating optimum energy,” Urvish told YourStory in a previous interaction.
URON also deals in organic photovoltaic panels, which can be customised to any shape. It also uses waterless cleaning technology for the panels through the use of robots.
Since its inception, the clean energy startup has worked on eight projects. It has deployed its solutions at three locations (a total of 2.2 MW). It also provides ground-mounted and roof-top solar energy services.
(With inputs from Bhavya Kaushal, Shreya Ganguly, Apurva P, Thimmaya Poojary)
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta