'Scaling up not a challenge for us anymore' : Waaree Renewable Tech CFO

Order book at 2.1 GW for next 9-12 months, bidding pipeline at 15 GW for solar EPC major

Scaling up is no longer a challenge for Waaree Renewable Technologies Ltd (WRTL), one of the country’s largest solar engineering, procurement, and construction companies, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Dilip Panjwani told Business Standard in an interaction.

Panjwani highlighted that the company is executing its largest order to date, a 980 MW solar project in South India. WRTL currently has an unexecuted order book of 2.1 GW for the next 9-12 months, down from 2.3 GW at the start of the year. Project execution is progressing swiftly, he noted.

The company's bidding pipeline has increased to 15 GW, up from 13 GW in FY24, Panjwani said. "We are also receiving repeat orders. We recently secured 30 MW in repeat orders from an existing customer," he added.

WRTL is also intensifying its participation in public sector projects. "We have participated in three public sector tenders in the past month. The share of contracts from public sector companies in Waaree RTL's order book has risen to 30 per cent, up from 10 per cent earlier," Panjwani said.

Total issuance of renewable energy tenders surpassed a record 69 GW in FY24, according to a joint report by the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research & Analytics released earlier this year.

"Our expectation is that this will increase, given the government’s plan to add 50 GW of renewable energy capacity annually over the next five years to achieve the target of 500 GW by 2030. More tenders will be issued," Panjwani said.

WRTL’s focus remains on providing turnkey solutions for ground-mounted, rooftop, and floating solar projects. However, ground-mounted projects will continue to be the main driver of growth, he said. The company has successfully completed over 10,000 solar projects, cumulatively accounting for more than 600 MW of operational capacity.

Panjwani noted that the per MW cost of setting up a solar plant has decreased over the past two and a half years from Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 3.25-3.5 crore.

Earlier this week, WRTL reported a three-fold rise in net profit to Rs 28.47 crore for the first quarter (April-June) of FY25, up 138 per cent from Rs 11.96 crore in Q1 FY24. However, its shares fell by 5 per cent the following day, hitting the lower circuit. The share price stood at Rs 1,538 at the time of writing this report on Friday.