Inderpreet Wadhwa

Last updated
Inderpreet Wadhwa
Born
1972
Alma mater UC Berkeley [1]
OccupationFormer Chairman and CEO Azure Power

Vice President, Products & Operations Loyalty Lab (now Tibco)

Senior Director, Applications Development Oracle Corporation

Contents

Known forPioneering Solar Power Generation in India

Building India’s first private Utility Scale Solar Project

Building India’s first distributed MW Scale Rooftop Solar Project

Issuance of India’s first Solar Green Bond

Listing of India’s first power company on NYSE

Inderpreet Singh Wadhwa (born 1972) is an Indian-American renewable energy entrepreneur. [2] He is the founding Chairman & CEO of Azure Power Global Limited. [1] In 2008, he founded Azure Power, which launched an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on October 12, 2016, enabling the first listing of Indian energy assets on the New York Stock Exchange. [3] He retired from CEO and Chairman positions of Azure Power as of July 18, 2019 and now serves as an external advisor to Azure Power till December 31, 2019. [4]

Personal life and education

Wadhwa was born in Amritsar, Punjab. He has a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from G.N.D.U, Punjab and graduated from Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. [1]

Career

In 2008, Wadhwa founded Azure Power with the idea of setting up a business that offers viable and socially responsible alternatives to conventional sources of energy. [5] At the age of 35, Wadhwa, left his job in Silicon Valley and decided to explore the solar energy sector. Wadhwa pioneered a 1 MW project in a border village in Punjab, which at the time was the largest commercial  solar project in India. [6] On December 1, 2009, Azure commissioned the first phase (1 MW) of its 2 MW solar PV plant in Awan, Amritsar and began to sell solar power to the Punjab State Electricity Board making Wadhwa the first entrepreneur to sell solar power commercially in India. [7]

Prior to Azure Power, Wadhwa served as a vice president of Loyalty Lab and as a senior director of Oracle Corporation. Additionally, he has been a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). [8]

Azure Power

Under Inderpreet’s leadership, Azure Power grew to become one of India's largest solar power developers and operators with a portfolio of over 3 GWs, including over 1.5 GWs of operating assets. The company has established its leadership through a series of industry firsts, including the first Indian solar company to list its shares publicly on the NYSE and the first successful issuance of green bonds for Indian solar assets. [4]

In 2016, Azure Power received the National Award under category “Project Developer” by MNRE. [9]

In 2018, Azure Power’s project portfolio surpassed the 3 GW milestone. [10]

In March 2019, Azure Power surpassed 100 MWs of operating solar rooftop capacity, making the operating portfolio of Azure Roof Power one of the largest in the country. [11]

In July 2019, Inderpreet retired from his position as CEO and Chairman and member of the Board of Directors of Azure Power and all its subsidiaries. He will continue to serve as an advisor to the Company until December 31, 2019. [4]

Media Appearances

Inderpreet has relentlessly lobbied generation based incentives in solar sector through Clean Trade initiatives across US and India. His work has been highlighted in top tier publications such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, and Economic Times and he is a sought after speaker at major solar power events in India and abroad including Solar Power International, Inter Solar and other leading solar conferences. [12]

Some of the public appearances are as below:

Related Research Articles

Solar power by country

Many nations have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is a ministry of the Government of India that is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual property protection, and international cooperation, promotion, and coordination in renewable energy sources such as wind power, small hydro, biogas, and solar power.

Solar power in India

Solar power in India is a fast developing industry. The country's solar installed capacity reached 34.045 GW as of 31 January 2020. India has the lowest capital cost per MW globally to install solar power plants.

For solar power, South Asia has the ideal combination of both high solar insolation and a high density of potential customers.

Renewable energy industry

The renewable-energy industry is the part of the energy industry focusing on new and appropriate renewable energy technologies. Investors worldwide have paid greater attention to this emerging industry in recent years. In many cases, this has translated into rapid renewable energy commercialization and considerable industry expansion. The wind power and solar photovoltaics (PV) industries provide good examples of this.

BrightSource Energy company

BrightSource Energy, Inc. is an Oakland, California based, corporation that designs, builds, finances, and operates utility-scale solar power plants.

Renewable energy in India Emission free energy in India

India is one of the countries with the largest production of energy from renewable sources. As of 2019, 35% of India's installed electricity generation capacity is from renewable sources, generating 17% of total electricity in the country.

Solar power in Pakistan

Pakistan has some of the highest values of insolation in the world, with eight to nine hours of sunshine per day, ideal climatic conditions for solar power generation. However, the country has been slow to adopt the technology.

The National Solar Mission, is an initiative of the Government of India and State Governments to promote solar power. The mission is one of the several policies of the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The program was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 11 January 2010 with a target of 20GW by 2022 which was later increased to 100 GW by the Narendra Modi government in the 2015 Union budget of India. India increased its solar power generation capacity by nearly 5 times from 2,650 MW on 26 May 2014 to 12,288.83 MW on 31 March 2017. The country added 9,362.65 MW in 2017–18, the highest of any year. The original target of 20 GW was surpassed in 2018, four years ahead of the 2022 deadline.

Welspun Energy

Welspun Energy Ltd (WEL) is an independent power company based in New Delhi, India. It is a subsidiary of Welspun Group. In addition to the coal-based power projects, WEL is the biggest developer of solar projects in India.

Sembcorp Energy India Limited (SEIL) is a leading independent power producer (IPP) in India. Formerly known as Thermal Powertech Corporation India Limited, SEIL owns 100% of both Sembcorp Gayatri Power Limited and Sembcorp Green Infra Limited.

ACWA Power

ACWA Power is a developer, investor, co-owner and operator of a portfolio of power generation and desalinated water production plants currently with presence in 10 countries including in the Middle East and North Africa, Southern Africa and South East Asia regions. ACWA Power’s portfolio, with an investment value in excess of USD 33 billion, can generate more than 22 GW of power and produce 2.5 million m3/day of desalinated water to be delivered on a bulk basis to state utilities and industrial majors on long term off-take contracts under Public-Private-Partnership, Concession and Utility Services Outsourcing models (BOO/BOOT).

Renewable energy in Ethiopia

Ethiopia generates most of its electricity from renewable energy, mainly hydropower.

Punjab Solar Summit was a Government of Punjab hosted event in Chandigarh on July 23, 2015 to bring prospective entrepreneurs, investors and other stake holders on a common platform.

Azure Power Renewable Energy Company

Azure Power Global Limited is an independent power producer, a developer and an operator of utility and commercial scale solar PV power plants headquartered in New Delhi, India. The company was founded in 2008 by entrepreneur Inderpreet Wadhwa. The company sells energy to government utilities, and independent industrial and commercial customers in India. Azure Power developed India's first utility scale solar project in 2009 in Awan, Punjab. The company also installed India's first megawatt scale solar rooftop project in Gandhinagar, Gujarat which was awarded the top 10 Public Private Partnership, 2013 by International Finance Corporation. Azure Power has a total capacity of over 5 GW in 24 states.

Bhadla Solar Park is one of the largest solar parks in India which is spread over a total area of 10,000 acres (40 km2) in Bhadla, Phalodi tehsil, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, India. The park will have ultimate capacity of 2,255 MW. The park has witnessed one of the lowest bids for tariff of Rs 2.44 per kWh, which is lowest for solar in India so far. In September 2018 Acme Solar announced that it had commissioned India's cheapest solar power, 200 MW at Bhadla .

Mansa Solar Power Plant is a 31.5 MW solar photovoltaic power generating station at Mirpur Kalan village of Mansa district in Punjab state of India.

Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park is a solar park spread over a total area of 5,932.32 acres (24.0072 km2) in Panyam mandal of Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, with a capacity of 1,000 MW. It was inaugurated by then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Jan 8, 2019 The park was built at an investment of around ₹7,000 crore (US$980 million) by solar power developers and the Central and State governments. Solar power developers invested ₹1,000 crore (US$140 million), while the remaining ₹6,000 crore (US$840 million) was funded by APSPCL supported by a ₹200 crore (US$28 million) grant from the Union Government.

Sanjeev Aggarwal is an Indian businessman. He is the founder of energy company Amplus Energy Solutions for which he serves as CEO. He is the receiver of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry young leaders award of 2013.

Benban Solar Park is a photovoltaic power station with a total capacity of 1650 MWp which corresponds to an annual production of approximately 3.8 TWh. It is located in Benban in the western desert, approximately 650 km south of Cairo and 40 km northwest of Aswan. Benban is currently the largest solar power plant in the world.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Inderpreet Singh Wadhwa Executive Profile", Bloomberg
  2. ↑ "Inderpreet Singh Wadhwa", Relationship Science
  3. ↑ "Azure Power debuts at a discount on NYSE", Mint
  4. 1 2 3 "Market Insiders".
  5. ↑ "India's First Commercial Solar Power Plant", Ecoworld, 17 December 2009
  6. ↑ "Inderpreet Wadhwa: It was like driving a train even as the tracks were being laid", Forbes India , 13 June 2013
  7. ↑ "India's first entrepreneur to sell solar power, commercially", Rediff News , 9 December 2009
  8. ↑ "Scaling-up private sector climate finance", PROPARCO
  9. ↑ "PTC Financial" (PDF).
  10. ↑ "Azure Power wins 300 MW project to surpass 3 GW portfolio". pv magazine India. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  11. ↑ India, Press Trust of (2019-03-26). "Azure Roof Power Surpasses 100 MWs of Operating Solar Rooftop Capacity". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  12. ↑ "Inderpreet Wadhwa | VCCircle Events". events.vccircle.com. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  13. ↑ Inderpreet Wadhwa - Azure Power , retrieved 2019-08-27
  14. ↑ In Their Own Words: Inderpreet Wadhwa (Azure Power) and Nikunj Jinsi (IFC) , retrieved 2019-08-27
  15. ↑ LIVE NOW: We’re talking with Inderpreet... - IFC - International Finance Corporation , retrieved 2019-08-27
  16. ↑ From Coal to Solar in New Delhi | Years of Living Dangerously , retrieved 2019-08-27
  17. ↑ Azure Power Team – Access to financing , retrieved 2019-08-27
  18. ↑ Bloomberg TV: Inderpreet Wadhwa on FM Pitch , retrieved 2019-08-27
  19. ↑ Building sustainable infrastructure with inclusive growth: Inderpreet Singh Wadhwa at TEDxLeh , retrieved 2019-08-27
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.