In an interview on the sidelines of the Mercom India Renewables Summit 2025 held in New Delhi on July 24 and 25, 2025, Venkat Avirneni, Co-Founder and CEO at Vyomaa Energy, shared his insights on India’s rooftop solar trends in the commercial and industrial sector.

He also spoke about his company’s operations in India and the U.S., and on the need for India to foster a battery manufacturing ecosystem for energy storage.

Please give us an introduction to Vyomaa Energy and your service offerings.

We operate in India and the U.S. In India, we are primarily into rooftop solar for the commercial and industrial sector. In the U.S., we cater to the residential market.

Vyomaa installs rooftop solar onsite at our customer facilities. Our business model is currently in the commercial and industrial sector.

What is your market size in terms of capacity?

We have about 8 MW operating capacity, and we have closed about another 10 MW that is shovel-ready. Vyomaa has a target of 25 MW by March 31, 2026.

For the C&I segment, our order book is full.

Which segments of the industry do your clients come from?

Our customer base is the educational sector, the wood processing sector, and the automotive industry sector. We also have leases from data centers, software companies, and large malls. But our portfolio is mainly educational and the healthcare sector.

Most of our capacity, which is about 4.5 MW, is in Karnataka. The capacity is split between the education and food processing sectors.

The majority of the opportunities in the education sector lie in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. In West Bengal, the power-hungry food processing industry is rapidly expanding. Educational institutions are a daytime industry, and they are the ones that tap into renewable energy power first. And now, they are operating 24/7, with all their hostels and lab facilities for which we must provide battery solutions.

Going forward, are you also getting into other verticals like the independent power producer segment?

We are venturing into storage, and at every rooftop facility, we are integrating energy storage, which gives added value to our clients, helping them secure access to 24/7 power at cheaper rates.

What kind of challenges and opportunities do you see in the C&I rooftop solar space?

The project construction activity is pretty straightforward. But grid synchronization and grid stabilization are major challenges. The process improvements have to come from both policymakers and developers. They have to work together to speed up grid synchronization.

What is your module sourcing strategy?

We have our vendor partners, major domestic module manufacturers from whom we source tier one modules.

Since our PPA tenures are for 25 years, our modules have to sustain for the entire duration. We source carefully, because we deliver quality. In the C&I segment, only those who provide quality will sustain.

When we procure the modules, we take a linear performance warranty for 10-15 years, after which the product warranty kicks in.

You are also participating in government tenders. You recently won a project from SECI.

We actively participate in government tenders, and primarily in SECI tenders. Recently, we won two projects, one in North India and one in the South. These are challenging projects for us. The challenges lie in identifying the roof space and meeting the growing demands of clients. They have their own energy mix and operational expenditure. Customer needs change as we talk to them.

We are working towards commissioning them by the end of this year.

From your experience, which model do C&I businesses prefer between solar open access and rooftop solar? 

In solar open access, the availability of land is a major issue. Open access rules also differ from state to state. That’s a challenge for us. On the other hand, in the rooftop model, if the client has rooftop space, we can provide a solution.

Businesses have to choose between these two solutions.

What model does Vyomaa employ – CAPEX or OPEX – in your rooftop solar projects?

We go with the OPEX model. We sign PPAs for 20 to 25 years. With zero investment from the customer, we install the rooftop. We bring the capital, and we deploy the project on the client’s facility.

We have been in this domain for about 12 years. We raise equity, and we have equity partners from overseas as well as in Indian markets. We also tap into project finance debt providers. Initially, it was very tough to explain to banks how this model works. But now, more and more banks are learning and developing different product segmentations for financing.

What are Vyomaa Energy’s expansion plans? 

Right now, we are mainly focused on a few states in India. We have won a project in Delhi, which allows us to expand into northern markets as well.

We are also in talks with clients in the U.S. and exploring opportunities in the data center and global capability center market.

What kind of policy prescriptions do you suggest to make business in India easier? 

We need a common policy across states for grid synchronization to expedite project commissioning.

I feel the C&I segment is yet to take off in a big way. In utility scale, we are adding about 20 GW a year. We need to see the same scale in the C&I sector.

Policy changes can address some of the bottlenecks in C&I project commissioning. With battery technology coming into play, we should be able to supply round-the-clock power onsite at the customer facility.

The government has been incorporating 10% energy storage in solar tenders. What more needs to be done to give an impetus to the storage sector?

One thing India lacks is enough manufacturers locally. We have to rely on outside manufacturers. While mandating energy storage definitely increases demand, the technology must originate from within India. That is a challenge.

But eventually, as the market picks up, we will have more battery manufacturers coming into play.

Do you have plans to participate in BESS tenders floated by government agencies? 

That’s an ongoing activity for us. Any tender that comes in the size and scale that we can participate in, we are into it. As I speak, my tendering team is participating in at least four different tenders. Some of them have battery storage as well.

(Note: Sections of the interview have been paraphrased for better reading. Check out the video for a full chat)