Vineet Mittal’s Avaada powers ahead in renewables race

Why read this story?

Editor's note: The man who helped build what was once India’s largest solar developer is back for another crack at the market.  Over a decade ago, Vineet Mittal led Welspun Energy’s foray into renewables when the solar market in India was almost non-existent. After selling the business to the Tata group in 2016, he embarked on another entrepreneurial journey.  Six years after it was founded, Mittal’s Avaada Energy has emerged among the top five large-scale solar developers by capacity. With a healthy pipeline of projects and marquee investors on board, he has now set his sights on becoming a mainstay in India’s energy transition story. Even though India’s solar capacity growth slowed over the past year, Avaada continued to add projects and became a regular feature at auctions. Last year, it boasted an 11.5% market share in the 8.7 gigawatt grid-connected solar projects that were commissioned, third largest after state-run NTPC and Adani Green Energy. Tenders for these projects are awarded by government agencies, and buyers are state distribution firms. In the open-access category—with commercial and industrial buyers—Avaada was the leading developer. …