Solar Energy is potential enough to reduce India's foreign dependence on energy. Propelling this strategic advantage, several initiatives have been set forth to drive solar energy in the country. However, the adoption and implementation of massive Solar PV projects like Pavagada and Bhadla is only at a very large scale. There-fore, driven by the government and large industry. With that said, Akshay Harikumar, Founder of Wenergie believes that "For a technology to truly become mass-market, demand should be driven from the grassroots, rather than top-down."

Currently, only about 5 percent of India's total Solar Installed capacity is contributed by small and medium rooftop systems. The demand for small rooftop Solar will only increase when the technology and price tick all that the customers look for, which is not the case today. Technology is not yet at a stage where intermittent solar generation can be smoothed out to provide reliable and afford-able energy to households. This is exactly the problem that Wenergie is set out to solve.

Wenergie began the journey as a rooftop Solar PV system integrator. However, the team soon realized that the intermittent nature of Solar Energy and the high cost of solving for this intermittence with batteries was impeding the growth of the market.

With a technology back-ground, the young minds seemed up for the challenge. Speaking about the dexterous troop of the company, Akshay exclaims, "We are a young team. Our energy enables us to quickly iterate and execute- this is essential in start-ups, but quite difficult in the Hardware sector. What helps is the hands-on domain-specific experience, courage to experiment and put our knowledge and skills to the test of fire."

One-of-a-kind Offering
Wenergie's product Nucleus is an intelligent gateway device that integrates grid-tied Solar PV systems with any kind of storage technology, to function as a smart micro-grid. This eliminates the major drawback of Solar- its intermittent nature, the dependency on the grid, and ensures that Solar PV is available throughout the day. It ensures 100 percent up-time and an 80 percent reduction in electricity bill for showrooms and residence.

Nucleus works across all types of battery and at any DC Voltage level. Therefore, it can be retrofitted into any existing UPS or backup system while being ready for future system upgrades. Nucleus is also able to manage and dispatch the load level, optimizing and prioritizing for ex-tended backup availability. There-fore, it is the brain and the beating heart of the energy generation, consumption, and backup systems. This 'control center' architecture is what inspired me to name it as Nucleus.

Team Wenergie is working on hardware and software that easily integrates solar and battery storage to provide 24x7 reliable energy in an affordable and universally compatible manner

"We are currently in the middle of a beta launch of Nucleus, to a closed set of customers. This has attracted the attention of some of the larger Solar PV installers, and we have entered strategic partnerships for them to incorporate Nucleus into the systems they deliver," he informs.

The Roadmap
The company is working towards patents and certifications to protect IP. With that as a base, it is looking at geo-graphical expansion to other countries. "We will soon be building on our Software layer to provide an additional level of services and give vital insights to solar owners, in-stallers, and utility operators. On the hardware side, we are looking at adding support for larger Solar PV systems, and also exploring a line of high-power charging electronics that can be used for stationary, as well as Electric Vehicle batteries," he concludes.