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Solar Exports Are Booming, But Domestic Supply May Feel the Pinch: SolarSquare Co-Founder

In an exclusive conversation with Outlook Business, SolarSquare Co-Founder Shreya Mishra discusses on impact of duties imposed on China, domestic manufacturing of Solar and the growth of rooftop solar in India

GAURAV_MISHRA
GAURAV_MISHRA

Q: What was the original spark that led to SolarSquare? 

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SolarSquare isn’t a typical venture-funded start-up. It has actually been almost a decade in the making. The company was founded in 2015 by Neeraj Jain and Nikhil Nahar. Together, they built a B2B solar company delivering reliable solutions for corporates, warehouses and factories. From 2015 to 2020, SolarSquare was entirely bootstrapped and profitable, scaling from zero to Rs 100 crore in revenue. I joined SolarSquare in 2020. Neeraj and I exited that start-up in 2019. 

The turning point came during a visit to Gujarat in 2020. We saw installations surge from around 1,500 homes in 2018 to nearly 1 lakh by 2020–21. We believed this trend would soon play out across the country. As more homes adopted solar, awareness would grow organically, and governments would be forced to support decentralised residential solar. After all, the grid can’t handle unchecked demand growth, and energy independence is crucial in the face of climate and geopolitical challenges. 

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We were convinced that home solar was the future. Even though many VCs dismissed it as not being a venture-scale opportunity, we committed to building for that future. Our thinking was: by the time market tailwinds arrive, we’d be ready. That belief—that residential solar would be central to India’s energy independence—was the real spark behind SolarSquare’s pivot. 

The US has imposed steep duties on Chinese solar panels, reshaping the global supply chain. Have those moves had any trickle-down effect on Indian players like SolarSquare? 

So, we’re primarily an installation company—we handle the last-mile service and installation for consumers. Naturally, we procure panels from various manufacturers. When tariffs are imposed on Chinese suppliers, it opens up a window of opportunity for Indian manufacturers to export. 

Take Waaree, for example—their EBITDA has grown significantly. They’re benefitting from the vacuum left by Chinese exports facing sanctions, and are now exporting heavily to the U.S. and Europe. Export markets are often higher-margin compared to domestic sales, so there’s definitely an incentive for manufacturers to prioritise exports. 

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That said, there is a downside: at times, manufacturers may divert supplies meant for the Indian market to fulfill export orders. It’s understandable—they’re building their business too. But overall, I believe these tariffs will benefit India. 

With the world increasingly embracing a China-plus-one strategy, Indian manufacturing is only going to ramp up further. More domestic supply, more exports—it's a win-win. Over the last five years, India has stayed consistent in its focus on promoting local manufacturing, and these global trade shifts are aligning perfectly with that vision. 

How do you see the imbalance in rooftop solar installations across states? Gujarat and Maharashtra seem to be leading, but others are lagging behind. 

If you look closely at the numbers, you’ll see a very promising and fast-evolving story. Until 2023, Gujarat alone accounted for 80% of India's rooftop solar installations. By 2024, Gujarat and Maharashtra together still made up around 70–80%. However, if you examine data from the last three months on the National Solar Portal, Gujarat’s share has dropped to just 23%, and the combined share of Gujarat and Maharashtra is now around 44–45%. 

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What’s really encouraging is that the top eight rooftop solar states now account for 80% of installations. This shows that adoption is rapidly expanding across other states. Residential solar is a new category—it involves a significant investment for families. Even with supportive policies, there's a natural consumer education and adoption curve. The first 5,000–10,000 homes in a state take time, but once awareness spreads, uptake accelerates. It's like once your neighbor gets solar, you're more likely to consider it too. 

So, actually, the picture is becoming more balanced every day. Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are now part of the top-performing states. If you only look at cumulative numbers over the past four years, Gujarat still dominates. But recent data tells a different story—one of more inclusive growth. 

Since the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Suryodaya Yojana, around 10 lakh homes have installed rooftop solar in just over a year. That’s still a distance from the 1 crore target in three years, but it’s a huge leap from where we were. In 2023, India had barely 1.5 lakh total installations—Gujarat had about 1 lakh of them. Now, we’re doing 95,000 installations in a single month, up from just 12,000 a month previously. That’s a seven-fold increase. 

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A lot of vendors are complaining about the National Solar Portal and module availability. If everything is progressing smoothly, why is there so much dissatisfaction? 

There are a couple of issues here. Most vendors became active in the residential solar market only after PM Surya Ghar was launched. Many of them are new and lack perspective on how far we’ve come. For example, in 2021, getting a solar permit in Jabalpur required 45 signatures and could take 45 to 60 days. Today, it takes just 5–7 days. We’ve been in this business for 10 years and have seen the evolution. 

Of course, the National Solar Portal had glitches in the beginning—like any new IT system. For the first three and a half months, it was very buggy. But they upgraded it, and things have improved. Integrating 73 DISCOMs into one platform is no small task. 

How has the PM Surya Ghar Yojana impacted SolarSquare? 

It’s been transformational. We’re present in 20 cities across nine states and grew 100% in the last year—without expanding to new cities. The demand surge is across both individual homes and housing societies. 

What sets us apart is our full-stack model. We do everything end-to-end—sales consultation, system design, installation, government approvals, financing, and post-sale service. There are no middlemen. That consistency has helped us gain significant market share: 15% in Pune and Bengaluru, 12–13% in Hyderabad and 34% in Jabalpur. We’re currently the number one residential solar brand in the country, as per installation data published on the National Solar Portal. That’s a testament to the demand, our model, and the strong policy support in place. 

The government is pushing for domestic manufacturing. How reliant is SolarSquare on Chinese components right now? 

For residential solar, if a customer wants to claim the Rs 78,000 subsidy under PM Surya Ghar, it’s mandatory to use Made in India modules—DCR-compliant panels where even the solar cell is manufactured domestically. Right now, only three companies in India have large-scale cell manufacturing: Premier Energies, Jupiter, and Adani. Waaree and ReNew are setting up their cell lines too, but stable cell manufacturing takes time. You have to perfect the ‘recipe’, so even if a plant is operational, it might take up to a year to produce reliable quality. 

There are many companies assembling panels in India—especially in Gujarat and Bengaluru—but those panel assembly lines often go underutilised because they can’t access enough Indian-made cells. The real bottleneck is in cell manufacturing. It’s more complex than panel assembly. 

Inverters are a different story. We still import those from China because India doesn’t yet have manufacturers with the required scale or technical expertise. That’s why the government hasn’t mandated Indian inverters for the subsidy scheme. But hopefully, in the next few years, inverter manufacturing will pick up here too.  

What does SolarSquare look like in 2026 or 2027? Are IPOs, international expansion or diversification on the cards? 

I believe we’ll continue to be the number one residential solar brand in India. The big difference by 2027 will be the size of the market—it’ll be nearly 10 times larger than when we started. So naturally, SolarSquare will also be a much bigger company. We’re not just sticking to rooftop solar—we’re planning to enter the battery space as well. Our broader vision is to become the home energy brand for future India. Everything energy-related that an Indian home of the future needs, we want SolarSquare to be part of it. 

Today, we’re already the largest operators of distributed solar assets in the country. We manage over 20,000 homes and 200+ housing societies. And we don’t just install solar systems—we maintain them. We take responsibility for power production. In fact, we’re the only company in India—and perhaps globally—that offers a savings guarantee with solar. Think of it this way: I’m not selling you a car; I’m selling you guaranteed mileage. Likewise, I’m not selling just a solar system; I’m selling guaranteed savings. That requires deep tech capabilities to monitor system health, prevent breakdowns, and deliver on that savings promise. As for an IPO—yes, that's the eventual game plan. We’re on track to become profitable this year, and an IPO will be important for providing an exit to our investors. But it’s not something we’re chasing in the short term. Maybe in three to five years—but not in the next two years for sure. 

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