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SunSource Energy says regulatory uncertainty is solar industry’s biggest challenge
SunSource Energy says regulatory uncertainty is solar industry’s biggest challenge
The disparity between central and state government renewables policies must be resolved and renegotiating signed PPAs is an absolute no-no, according to the solar business’ bosses.
Kushagra Nandan and Adarsh Das founded commercial and industrial solar energy and storage solutions provider SunSource Energy in 2010.
The international company’s portfolio of more than 300 MW of distributed solar generation capacity sprawls across 24 Indian states and six nations. SunSource’s project highlights include developing one of India’s first private solar-plus-storage portfolios, with facilities in Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Andaman and Nicobar; one of the largest open-access projects in Uttar Pradesh; an innovative floating PV project for Indian Oil; and a 1.8 MW solar project in the Philippines, one of the largest solar rooftops in the country at the time.
The company’s cleantech project for the Sana Foundation helped more than 25,000 people per year across seven tribal villages in Andhra Pradesh by giving access to clean drinking water, bio-toilets and clean electricity, and won the Google Impact Challenge Award.
SunSource Energy is also one of the first energy companies in India to manage its PV waste by working with authorised partners.
In this joint interview, company president Kushagra Nandan, an alumnus of the University of Massachusetts and solar technical expert to the World Bank; and CEO Adarsh Das, who holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and a masters degree in solar engineering from the University of Massachusetts, discuss India’s solar scenario, the challenges facing the industry, much-needed policy support and the future.
pv magazine: From 2010 when you started, how much has India’s solar industry changed?
When we started in 2010, the only policy support driving solar was [the] Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, and to some extent the renewable power obligations [RPOs] being adopted by states. The real adrenaline push in solar capacity addition happened after India’s commitment under nationally appropriate mitigation actions, wherein India committed to replacing prevailing fossil fuel energy dependency with solar up to 15% by 2020.