In its promotional video, Rays Experts show the sun proposing to invest in solar energy which gives a 28% ROI annually, compared to traditional 10% by the banks. The concept of investing in solar energy is interesting. It’s pure, non-polluting and best source of energy available on earth. And if this can be used as an area of investment with fair and stable ROI, it’s definitely worth exploring.
Twenty-five-year-old Rahul Gupta is behind this revolutionary concept and is setting up India’s first private solar park in Rajasthan. At this young age he is the founder of Rays Experts which is a global solar power plant management company. He started his venture in 2010 after evaluating the huge demand and opportunities in the renewable energy sector in India.He envisioned setting up a 5MW solar power plant while he was still pursuing his final year of engineering at IIT Roorkee.
Rahul says during registration of the project, he needed Rs.1,37,000 which he couldn’t source either from his personal finance or from the support of his family. He was finally able to get a loan from a friend to start his venture.
Initially, he came across some unanticipated hurdles and it took him a while to get 5 MW project registered and approved by the government of Rajasthan. Meanwhile, he continued to provide management consultancy to individuals and corporates for investing in solar projects.
Talking about his challenges, he shares that every days’ delay was a big loss to his company. For instance, while they were executing a project of 20 MW implemented over 100 acres of land they were surprised to learn that their cables were stolen when they arrived the next day for implementation. “We have to face situations like these. And during the commissioning we realized that there was a blast and the transformer was not working. We had to replace the transformer which is custom made. Fortunately we have been able to meet deadlines and complete all projects successfully,” he says.
His first solar plant was setup in Kolayat, Bikaner district of Rajasthan, which was a small setup of 250 KV capacity completed in October 2012. He was finally able to get approval from the government of Rajasthan to set up India’s first Solar Power Park across five acres of land. Rahul says that they are the technological leader in India with developments of over 500 acres of solar plants with 110 MW of solar power. He envisions Rays Experts to illuminate two billion houses in India by 2020.
You can reach Rahul Gupta here.