Azure: India's first solar project to go commercial

AMRITSAR (Commodity Online): When renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions continue to be hotly discussed topics among policy makers and analysts, a few days before the beginning of Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, a history of sorts was made in the city of Amritsar in Punjab. Here, Inderpreet Wadhwa, who was previously associated with start-up and Fortune 500 companies in USA, commissioned the first phase (1Mw) of his 2 MW solar power plant in Awan and has begun to sell energy to Punjab State Electricity from December 1.

That makes him the first entrepreneur to sell solar power commercially in India. Wadhwa also co-founded and sold a software education company in Silicon Valley a few years back. And though he's still associated with the word 'silicon', it does not relate to information technology. Instead, he's now the founder & chief executive officer of Azure Power, a solar photovoltaic company that he founded two years ago in India.

"I returned to India after 15 years to make a difference, besides making money," says Wadhwa. In 2007, he started on his vision to set up India's first private solar power plant.

"Many small and big companies have entered the fray but none of them have commissioned any projects yet," he adds. Commercial and sentimental reasons dictated his choice of Punjab. "I was born in Amritsar, so I wanted to give something back to this place," he said.

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