Making Rooftop Solar Affordable And Accessible: Chemtrols

Chemtrols Solar Private Ltd., incorporated in 2010, is a subsidiary of the Chemtrols Group, a diversified one at that with interests in process control instrumentation & automation, manufacturing, and clean tech. Founded in 1975, the group employs more than 800 people in multiple manufacturing locations and offices in India and abroad. Mr. Anish Rajgopal, Director, Chemtrols.

- Ganesh Kalidas

From ground mounted to rooftop, lanterns to water heaters, Microgrids to off-grid solutions, they have it all. To understand Chemtrols better in the solar power space, The Textile Magazine team quizzes Mr. Anish Rajgopal, Director, Chemtrols.

Chemtrols Solar today has an installed capacity in excess of 75 MW and is today one of the top three players in the rooftop solar space in the country. In the current fiscal it’s looking at north of 35 MW orders to be executed, and plans to maintain its leading position in the rooftop solar space.

With the reduction in Solar PV prices and friendly government policies for use of renewable energy in industry, Chemtrols has executed more than 15 MW of rooftop solar projects so far in the textile sector itself. For the textile industry, power is a significant operational cost, and by installing captive rooftop solar plants they are able to save substantially on-grid and DG costs and in addition claim accelerated depreciation. Towards the third and fourth quarter of the fiscal the activity in this market is more frenetic as companies rush to claim accelerated depreciation.

Anish calls this the “depreciation market”, wherein the business houses/corporates invest in solar or renewable energy investments for tax relief in addition to having a lower cost power source.