‘Simplification, policy push has turbocharged residential rooftop solar’

Earlier this year, after the union Cabinet approved the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, a subsidy scheme to promote the installation of solar panels in one crore households with a total outlay of Rs 75,021 crore, demand for rooftop solar has been thriving. Solarsquare, a Mumbai-based startup launched by i it graduates, is among the leading B2C companies enabling consumers to shift to solar. In a conversation with AGGAM WALIA, SHREYA MISHRA, co-founder of Solarsquare, gives insights into factors driving demand, types of consumers opting for solar, and why business is changing.

How is the residential rooftop solar market shaping up?

The solar industry revolution starts from utility solar first. The government will put up big solar parks and put solar power into the grid. Then comes commercial solar where large factories, warehouses, and buildings will put up solar. The last consumer segment to inflect is always the residential segment. But once it does, it ends up becoming a very large consumer segment. In 2020-21, policies were muddled and the subsidy system was broken.

In some cities, to get a governmentpermit for solar used to take 40-45 sheets of paper. it could take months to get a simple solar permit. Of course, now with the PM Surya Ghar Yojana, we couldn’t have imagined how much the industry will be turbocharged.

Earlier, there used to beast ate level subsidy and people would get different amounts. Now, it’s one subsidy and one portal, so it’s definitely led to more standard is at ion and awareness. in july 2022, the National Portal for Rooftop Solar was launched and over the last two months since the scheme announcement, they are integrating this portal with the 70+ DISCO M portals of India. The process to get permits and subsidies will be seamless once the integration happens. things are simpler now, there’s policy push. We have so much demand right now that we are unable to service almost 50 per cent of the inquiries because we are not in those pincodes.

How has Solarsquare leveraged this market?

Solarsquare started in 2015 as ab2b full-stack roof top solar company where we helped large corporations, including Fortune 500 companies, to switch to solar. In 2020,Covid-19hitandatthattime people were at home. There were some subsidies available in India, so we started experimenting with residential solar in 2020 and very quickly realised that this is a massive opportunity. At the time, there was no professional brand in the residential market that was solving consumer pain points on high-quality and safe installation, reliable aftersales, and access to easy EMI options for financing. In 2021, we pivoted to residential solar and now business is of a different avatar. We operate in 15 cities of India and employ about 400 odd people in the company. Currently, around 80 per cent of the business is residential and 20 per cent is still commercial.

What is the demographic profile of your customers?

We see a lot of middle-income families who have two-wheelers but would want to go solar before buying a hatchback car because the economics of making free electricity for 25 years is attractive. Some go solar before buying air conditioners.

We’ve seen new home owners being a big category. At least 25 per cent of our customers are senior citizens. For example, my dad is now retired and once that stage of life comes, you become very conscious about utility bills and savings because you don’t have a regular income stream. Hence, we see a lot of retired couples, empty nesters go solar.

How will the recontinuation of the government’s shortlist of solar panel manufacturers impact rooftop solar industry?

Inthelong-term,theapproved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) is right. Solar is the new oil, so you have to become independent. Geopolitical crises, wars are always about energy and sources of power. as a country, becoming self-reliant and promotingdomestic manufacturing is the right way togo. Is it an inconvenience?yes. panels could be in short supply. Domestic manufacturers do try to take undue advantage by charging higher prices.

But solar is anyways such a cheap source of power that it neither impacts the demand nor the industry. What is a huge inconvenience is the policy flip-flop, which confuses the consumer and the industry. We just need to stick to promoting domestic manufacturing and avoid flip-flops.