Zerodha's Nithin Kamath Invests In Start-Up That's Making Solar Panels More Accessible

Zerodha Co-founder Nithin Kamath said on Monday that his company has invested in a startup, SundayGrids, that took an "interesting approach" to solving India’s solar power harvesting issues and saving money on electricity bills. 

“Today, if you are interested in installing some solar panels but don't have the roof space necessary because you live in an apartment or a rented house, there's no solution,” Kamath wrote on X.

Only about 10% of urban households in India have rooftop solar panels, despite the government offering subsidies for it. “That means many people are conscious about being sustainable but can't do anything,” Kamath said.

The Zerodha CEO highlighted the work of SundayGrids, where Zerodha’s arm Rainmatter has invested. “@sundaygrids is taking an interesting approach to solve this problem. They set up solar power plants in other locations and allow people to reserve a part of the capacity in the plant,” he wrote in the post.

“This generates credits, which can be used to reduce the power bill, even though the plant is in a different place. They are now live across India,” he added.

“Various governments are now coming up with regulations to encourage third-party solar models. I think this is a cool way to make solar accessible to the masses,” Kamath said in his post on X. 

In a blog, Zerodha mentioned that SundayGrids combines the benefits of community, digital and gross metering. 

Started by Mathew Samuel, Naseer Sathyala, and Tarun Joseph, the company lets anyone invest in solar even without a dedicated space.

Under the company’s model, a residential user invests in capital to install solar panels. Then, multiple users pool in their capital to install a solar farm on the rooftop of a commercial or industrial building. The commercial user sells and consumes the power, and the revenue generated is credited to the residential investor as a credit against their electricity bill. This also lets the investor earn money and get subsidies.

SundayGrids lists new solar installations on their platform and then lets residential users "reserve" a portfolio. As and when they earn credits, the residential users can use them to offset against any bill.