Amit Nanda and his company Satattva are making a strong case for solar energy. Here's How

There are many advocates of solar energy today, some of them silently going about their work and helping people make the switch. Amit Nanda is one of them. After rigorous training in Hyderabad and Gujarat, he started conducting training sessions himself. "These sessions are targeted at those who want to start a start-up in the solar field or want to install a solar plant at home," says the 33-year-old. And that's not all. He even speaks at colleges. "These are usually the technical side of things - how to set up a solar plant or about its financial viability," he explains. Most recently, he spoke at Xavier University, Bhubaneswar's Sustainability Summit about the financial viability of solar energy and has similarly conducted interactive sessions for faculty members at Centurion University and CV Raman College of Engineering.  

For most sessions, Amit carries along a working model of solar panels so that participants can learn by watching

Apart from all these sessions, Amit has a start-up of his own, Satattva, through which he has been setting-up solar power panels since July 2016. "I started this purely out of interest and curiosity about solar energy," says the alumnus of Xavier University. They started on a subcontract basis for the Government of Odisha and once Amit gained more knowledge of the practical know-how, their work started expanding too — all the way to Oman. "The entire material went from India and we are piloting at two sites," says Amit who visited Oman to look over the execution of the project. The entrepreneur says that though they are yet to declare huge turnovers, they are a company that believes in the power of solar energy.

During a workshop | (Pic: Satattva)

"There is a notion in the market that solar panels are expensive, but it's not about that at all. You just need to find a financially-viable model that addresses your particular needs," explains Amit. And because you are using solar power and thus, taking less from the grid, "the government rules and regulations don't really favour solar power," he explains. But despite the existence of this conundrum, Amit says that India is geographically in the perfect position to harness the rays of the sun. Thus, we must do so.

Interesting numbers:
- The country's solar installed capacity reached 31.696 GW by October 31, 2019
- Solar power accounts for 9.2 per cent of India’s total installed power capacity
- India has the lowest capital cost per MW globally to install the solar power plants
- Karnataka tops the list when it comes to highest installed solar power generation capacity