Tata BP Solar CEO, K Subramanya, was recently conferred the Sarabhai Award for his sustained and outstanding contribution in the field of electronics or semiconductors/photovoltaics in India. The award is instituted by the Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA), a premier body for electronic systems design and manufacturing (ESDM) industry in the country.
Subramanya’s association with the solar industry began in the 80s’ when solar was at best an exotic subject. Subramanya dreamt of a solar nation. He believed that solar energy could be used in solving a range of fundamental problems in India, from lack of power supply to poor educational and health indicators. He helped the government conceptualize and design the Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission, which is now being hailed as the world’s largest solar energy programme.
As head of the Solar Energy Task Force, formed by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Subramanya played a strong role in shaping the government’s policies in terms of promoting the Indian solar industry. His status as the father figure of the solar industry drew all the leading solar companies in the country to join the task force and take India’s solar story forward. And what a forward march it has been. From nothing in the early 1990s to almost 1800 MW of solar power projects today!
Subramanya’s contribution to the solar industry, however, goes beyond the business interests of the company he steers. He has travelled the nooks and corners of the country, from Leh-Ladakh to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, as well as to countries in the SAARC region, Far East, Middle-East, Africa, Europe and the Americas, to spread the solar message. His untiring efforts resulted in the production of a whole range of solar products such as street and portable lighting, water pumps, water heaters, vaccine refrigerators, power plants, products for telecom, railways, military and offshore platforms. To make solar lights accessible and affordable, he led the Tata BP Solar management to persuade regional rural banks (RRBs) to provide loans to rural customers. Thus was established the Sun Bank —a solar power solution for rural bank branches. Today, the Government of India is using this idea at the national level by incorporating it as a scheme for RRBs to finance solar home lighting systems.
To meet the challenge of escalating costs of solar energy generation, Tata BP Solar, under the watchful eyes of Subramanya, is also steering its research programme towards developing high efficiency solar cells, modules, products and systems through innovative processes, materials and designs.
Under Subramanya’s guidance, Tata BP Solar has spread its solar wings in the remote corners of the country, from villages in Chhattisgarh to an altitude of 11,000 feet in Ladakh. The Himalayan story is perhaps the most encouraging. As other energy forms are unviable in the trans Himalayan region, solar is the natural choice. More than 1,000 solar home lighting systems and several power plants of various capacities totaling to 1.5 MW have been installed and commissioned in the region under challenging circumstances given the rough terrain, transportation hurdles, extreme temperatures and limited resources. These projects have also created local employment.
As the face and voice of the solar industry, Subramanya is on a mission to make solar energy the most important form of energy not only for the future but also today. He may have an experience of over 25 years in this sector, but for the CEO of India’s largest solar company, the work has just begun.
