Solar Pumps to Solar EPC – Kalpa Power

An Interview @REI 2016

Kalpa Power is an end-to-end solution provider of solar based products. It is a unit of Span Pumps Pvt Ltd – a well-established player in the solar pumps sector and have supplied more than 6000 Solar Pumps (5 MW) so far. Founded in 1987, Span Pumps has operations in more than 15 states across India and employs over 500 people.

Solar EPC was a natural diversification for Span Pumps and Kalpa Power was established in April, this year. Design and installation of solar power systems – both rooftop and utility scale are the major focus areas for Kalpa Power, while they also have future plans of launching innovative products for O&M.

Solar Mango team was able to catch up with Mr.Rajendra Nahar, GM-Business Development of Kalpa Power for a brief interview during the recent REI Expo 2016, held at Noida. A quick snapshot of the interview is given below:

Mr.Rajendra Nahar – GM Business Development @Kalpa Power’s booth at REI 2016

Interview with Kalpa Power

What was the motivation behind diversifying into Solar EPC from Solar pumps manufacturing?

Solar Pumps is a Government policy-driven business. Hence there are some constraints for scaling up in a big way. We wanted to play a large role riding the solar wave in the country.

 What are the key products and solutions Kalpa Power provides to the Indian solar sector?

Kalpa Power is a pure-play end-to-end Solar EPC solutions provider – Starting from design till commissioning. We operate in both Capex and Opex models and we also offer O&M services for the solar plants that we install.

We have already successfully completed rooftop solar projects over 2 MW.

Which are the key end user segments for your products and solutions?

We focus mainly on the Industrial and Commercial sector that includes Engineering industries, Automobile car dealers and service stations. Educational institutions are also one of our key end user segments.

What are the highlights and USPs of your products and solutions?

Custom design is one of our key USPs. As an EPC, we know the importance of design in the overall performance of the plant and hence we employ best of the brains to have custom design for each customer to maximize the returns and savings from the solar power plant.

Any future products and solutions you are coming up with for the Indian market?

We are working on an innovative product – Automatic Cleaning Systems. It uses robotic technology and will be greatly useful for the solar O&M sector. Given the pace at which the solar sector is growing in the country, there is enormous scope for O&M. We are optimistic about the success of this product which we will be releasing in early 2017.

What are the key learnings you have had from the Indian solar energy sector so far?

We have found that there is a large untapped potential for rooftop solar in the country – especially in Tier B&C towns.

One other key learning was – Most solar plants dip in their performance mostly because cleaning of panels is highly neglected. That explains why we are coming up with our future product.

What, according to you, are the key challenges faced by the Indian Solar market?

1. Finance cost for sub 2 MW rooftop projects are too high. Non availability of a structured product for the industry to work with, thus having a huge delay in project finalization and implementation
2. Standardization of the BOOT model, hence lot of investors are sitting on the fence to come in to the solar market.
3. Delays in net metering, making industries not adopt solar as most industries have 330 working days of the year and currently excess energy is penalized by most state EB’s.