By David MacDonald T he old expression ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ takes on a whole new meaning when the sun shines for more than 300 days a year like it does in India. But sunshine is lot lighter than hay and the ever-evolving and growing infrastructure of one of India’s biggest solar power companies is up to the nearly year-round challenge. In May, 28 year old co-founder and CEO of the solar solu- tions company Rays Power Infra, Ketan Mehta, told CNN that he saw the potential of the trillions of units of energy India receives from the sun from morning to evening every day. “But we’ve never been able to use it,” he said. But now, thanks to ambitious and forward-thinking entrepreneurs like Mehta, India is set to take Germany’s place as the third largest solar market in the world under China and Japan. The United States is fourth with 13.3% of total energy coming from solar sources. Australia is 9 th with a 5.9% capacity while Canada is 13 th with a 2.72% capacity.
in two Indian states: Rajasthan and Telangana. They’ve since built four more with a total of three presently in commission.
The RRIPL Ananpur Solar Park presently under construction has a project sits on 400-acres, has a capacity of 100MW and a grid connectivity of the 33/132KV level. “We are trying to develop, construct and service some of India’s largest solar power projects. Today more than 300 million people in the country are without power or without any source of energy. The demand is there,” Mehta told CNN. He sees an India where sooner than later, every vacant roof will welcome solar power and every household generating its own power. “The beauty in India is opportunities,” he said. “The country is wide open. The government is supporting, the environ- ment is positive, everybody is moving fast. I’m sure the next ten years are going to belong to India.”
In 2013, Rays Power Infra constructed its first two solar parks
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2017
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