Driving India’s RE Growth Through Solar Wind Hybrid and Storage Expansion – DR. FARUK G PATEL, Chairman and Managing Director, KPI Green Energy

How do you view India’s solar and renewable energy sector, and what qualities are critical to sustain momentum?

India’s renewable energy journey is not just a sectoral growth story; it is a national as well as international movement. From humble beginnings, we have reached a point where solar, wind, and hybrid solutions are central to our energy mix. The momentum is strong, but sustaining it requires more than technology and capital. True leadership today demands vision, resilience, and inclusivity. Vision to see beyond quarterly targets, resilience to navigate policy and market fluctuations, and inclusivity to ensure that communities, employees, and partners grow alongside businesses. A leader must act not just as a CEO, but as a custodian of India’s clean energy future. Aligning to this, when we were just at meagre installation capacity of a few hundred MWs, a couple of years ago, we took the humongous challenge to scale out installed capacity to 10 GW by 2030.

With competition in renewables, what strategies should leaders adopt to balance sustainability?

Competition is healthy; it pushes us to innovate and deliver better solutions. But in renewables, the real differentiator is not just speed, it is sustainable scale. Leaders must focus on three things:

Integration: Building across the value chain from generation to storage and transmission to optimize costs and efficiency.

Innovation: Embracing digitalization, AI, and predictive technologies to extract more value from every unit of renewable power.

Impact: Ensuring profitability does not come at the cost of people or the planet. And as I always say that a business that serves society and the coming generations will always find long-term profitability.

In short, growth with conscience is the only growth that lasts.

India has set 2030 targets. How can businesses align strategies to meet national goals?

India’s 2030 renewable energy vision is both ambitious and inspiring. To align with it, leaders must think nationally but act globally. As KP Group is not just ready to scale to 10GW by 2030 by expanding its execution in various states, but we are also expanding our global footprint. And to do so, one will have to focus on:

Partnerships: Collaborating with global players to bring best practices, while also nurturing domestic manufacturing and RCD.

Expansion: Expanding the footprints in the field of green hydrogen, BSS, and floating solar C offshore.

Localization: Reducing dependence on imports by investing in “Make in India” solutions that are cost-competitive and world-class. Talent Building: Developing the next generation of green leaders through skill development and technical education.

If businesses integrate India’s national goals into their corporate DNA, they won’t just be meeting targets — they will be shaping global competitiveness, and I am happy that KP Group is checking all the marks in the above-stated pointers.

What role do policy and regulation play in shaping investor confidence in India’s renewable energy market?

Policy is the backbone of investor confidence. When frameworks are stable, transparent, and forward-looking, capital flows naturally. Investors look for predictability in tariffs, land policies, grid access, and compliance. India has taken significant strides, but we must go further by ensuring long-term clarity in hybrid projects, storage policies, offshore policies, and green hydrogen incentives. A consistent policy environment does not just attract investors; it accelerates execution and creates a foundation for innovation. If we simply put everything, stable policies attract strong capital, and strong capital accelerates national progress.

Hybrid renewable projects combining solar, wind, and storage are gaining traction. How will they reshape the market over the next decade?

Hybrids are the future because nature itself is a hybrid. The sun shines by day, the wind blows strongest by night or season, and storage bridges the gaps. Together, they create a near round-the-clock green power ecosystem. In the coming years, hybrid projects will not be a niche; they will be the norm. They will drive down costs, stabilize grid supply, and open doors for large-scale industrial decarbonization. Hence, at KP Group, we are not just focusing on building Hybrid projects but have also done MoUs to bring in more sustainable storage capabilities for better synergy. I see that these projects will give India a competitive edge globally by ensuring reliable, dispatchable green energy for both domestic consumption and exports, like green hydrogen.

With bifacial modules, AI energy forecasting, and utility-scale storage, which technologies will be true game-changers for India’s solar sector?

Technology is the multiplier of vision. Bifacial modules will increase yield without requiring extra land, a crucial advantage for India. AI-based forecasting will transform how we plan, dispatch, and trade power in real-time. And large-scale storage will finally solve the intermittency challenge, unlocking the full potential of renewables. But beyond individual technologies, the true game-changer is integration. When solar, wind, storage, digitalization, and policy all come together, India will leapfrog into a clean energy superpower.