Rooftop electricity

In this age of high-end technology, what are some of the basic things that a common man needs to survive? “Roti, kapda, makaan…” answers Sameer Garg in a filmi style and then quickly adds: “aur electricity.”

True to his word, one can’t live without electricity and it was this basic human need that propelled Sameer, a student of BITS-Pilani, Goa, to come all the way to Hyderabad to work with a start-up that focuses on sun tracking technologies in the country.

After interning for six months, Sameer and his team worked on a product that can change the way one uses electricity at homes — India’s first rooftop micro e-invertor.

Rooftop Micro e-invertor produced by SmartTrack, the Hyderabad-based start-up, converts direct current (DC) which is generated by an individual solar panel to alternating current (AC). Look at it this way, if you have a solar panel on your rooftop, the electricity being generated is DC, but when you need to charge your phone, you need AC and that’s where the e-invertor comes in.

The one developed by the Hyderabad start-up has a “plug and play” system that makes it easier for people to operate. “Micro e-invertor is a concept that is quite popular in American and European countries. But despite its numerous advantages, it still has to catch up in Indian homes,” says Bhagawan Reddy Gnanapa, CEO and director of the start-up.

The 12-member team worked on the product for nine months — part of the team comprised four students from BITS-Pilani and three from IIIT-Hyderabad. The rooftop invertor is capable of producing 300 watts per solar panel. “But if you have a clear sunny day, the invertor can go on producing energy as high as 1.5 kilowatt and send it back to the grid since our invertor doesn’t store energy. When you are sending the energy back to the grid, the government pays you for it and that system is called e-metering. So when you get the electricity bill, your final amount will be offset,” says Jasmine Bhanushali, who joined the company when she was studying at IIIT.

Born in a small village in Goa, Sameer knows the importance of electricity and how difficult it can be to procure the same in remote places. If you import a micro e-invertors it will cost Rs 14,000, but the one the team from Hyderabad has worked upon only costs Rs 8,000.