BackFirms routinely underperformed on carbon footprint reduction targets: Sushant Arora
Our 'Click Moment' occurred when we signed a 30MW private solar farm contract which was also Asia's single largest solar power purchase agreement
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When we started CleanMax Solar in 2011, corporates and governments had started to recognize climate change and sustainability as the key challenges for the future; however, they were unable to catalyse the adoption of clean tech and renewables. At the time, most corporations also had ambitious carbon footprint reduction targets but underperformed on those targets routinely. This is where we saw the opportunity and identified the reasons for their inability to embrace renewable energy.
Our build-own-operate solar model proved to be extremely popular since it ensured corporates adopted rooftop solar solutions without investment at minimum performance risk and at a time when rooftop solar was almost unheard of.
Our ‘Click Moment’ occurred when we signed a 30MW private solar farm contract which was also Asia’s single largest solar power purchase agreement (PPA) with a Tata group company in 2015. For a relatively small company whose total installed base was less than 30MW, this single contract at the time was a huge win. Our overall capacity doubled suddenly with this contract and it put us in an entirely different league compared to competition. I think the reason we were able to get this exponential jump was because of the good work we had done for the same client in multiple smaller projects before this one and earned a lot of goodwill through those projects within that company. The project also kicked off our solar farm vertical and became the point at which we started seeing exponential growth, which we continue to experience this day. Today, our solar farms supply power to our more than 40 corporate customers like Adobe, Mindtree and Volvo, among others. I can safely say that the starting point for all of this was that initial 30MW farm for just one client. We realize that corporate India is ready to embrace clean energy wholeheartedly and we continue to set up multiple private solar farms across India.
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