All big things start small – and this is what exactly this young Jaipur lad, Rahul Gupta did. Even as a student of Civil Engineering at IIT Roorkie, he dreamt of drawing and trapping energy from the sun’s rays, and even the name of the startup he floated revolves around the sun rays – Rays Experts.
Working on clean energy solutions, Rahul Gupta, solar energy to be precise, and started small with a 250 MW power plant some ten years ago.
As MD and CEO of the company he formed, Rays Experts, Rahul Gupta turned the small firm he started in 2011 into one of India’s largest private sector solar park developers in the world. His company also specializes in rooftoo solar power generating units in addition to big power plants capable of running industrial units.
And in the process, he firmly established the company as a solar power solutions company, generating renewable power across the country. It is no surprise that he claims to be adding clients from small scale sector to big sized manufacturing companies.
For him and Rays Experts, it all began as a tiny start up – charged with the idea of garnering solar power and convert it into electricity – at 250 KW solar power plant at Kolayat in Bikaner of Rajasthan in 2012. From there, in just over ten years, if Rahul Gupta is close to achieving his dream of installing the world’s largest Solar Power Park of 3000 MWp capacity.
He and his team are close to acquiring the 1000 acres of land required for the project, also in Rajasthan, expected to be commissioned in one and half years from now. An avid reader, he is constantly upgrading self and the company on technical aspects of the manufacturing processes and it is absolutely the latest cutting edge technology he brings into anything he does.
It is a satisfied Gupta who is proud of the savings of 800,000 tons of coal per year and significant reductions in carbon emissions, through the installation of small, medium and big solar power generation plants over the past decade and more. As the country’s solar power company, Rays Experts, designs and builds clean energy projects for residential, commercial, and industrial solar power generating plants. Clearly, its current and proposed plants have a substantial long-term impact on environment conservation.
“Using clean and renewable energy is one of the key steps in lowering our negative impact on the environment. We, at Rays Experts, firmly believe in the environmental conservation movement and have efficiently cut down the CO2 emissions through our various installations across the country and intend to continue the same with our future projects. Solar energy solutions are the answer to many of our environmental woes, and therefore we are passionate about our business and its growth. We are confident that our current and future projects will have significant potential to create a greener future tomorrow,” Rahul Gupta.
The proposed 3000 MWp solar power plant in Rajasthan is the first and only 100 percent privately owned Ultra mega solar park in the country, which will be connected to the central transmission system. All the other major solar parks set up so far have either been partly or fully owned by the government.
“We are proud of the fact that the range of our clients covers individuals and even small and big manufacturing companies,” Gupta said and added, “From developing the concept to its commissioning, we offer services across every level of solar power project development,” he said. Which is why, the company has 100 percent retention of its clients.
On the proposed 3000 MWp solar power project, Gupta said, “It is remarkable to see how the Indian renewable energy industry has advanced in the last few years. To achieve the 300 GW target by 2030, we are doing our bit.”
He further said, “In the current tariff levels, only the project with low return expectations can survive and lowering the project risk can only help in lowering the return expectations. Our solar park is a major factor in risk reduction for solar developers.
As one of the early movers in this space, we are extremely proud to prepare the largest solar park in the world, which will further strengthen our position as a global leader in the solar industry.
Over the last 10 years, Rays Expert has established 2000 MW Solar Parks namely Corneight Solar Park, Jaisalmer, Kolayat Solar Park, Gajner Solar Park, Siwani Solar Park, and Mandsaur Solar Park in Rajasthan, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh. Soltown Solar Park will soon join the list as one of the largest solar parks in the world.
Interviewed by Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi.
