Come rain or shine: Avaada, others up the ante against conglomerates

'You can easily multiply capacity, but the biggest challenge to do any larger project in India is availability of land, availability of evacuation, funding, and the offtake agreement'

When Vineet Mittal first got into solar power, sometime around 2009, and was planting solar panels in Gujarat, renewable energy looked like a sector ripe for startups. Renewables were clearly the future of energy, and the big boys — Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, Adani Group, and the Tatas — were focusing much more on coal and petroleum.
 

Little did Mittal know that things were going to change drastically.

Today, all the three fossil fuel-fired conglomerates are big on renewables, leaving the startups in the sector — Mittal’s Avaada Energy, Renew Power, and Suzlon – to hustle for a slice of India’s