The Unseen Hero: How India Lost Its Solar Dream to China
Mr. Sachdev was always full of energy and ready with his next plan once the first is completed. he never wasted time in resting and had lot of dreams for Indian Solar Industry and the one such dream was to have indigenous Solar hybrid Inverters which was the forte of USA designing and China manufacturing as all the Solar inverters were made in China and reputed manufacturers were either European or USA and Chinese were also entering with their local brands at that time.
SMA, Fronius, ABB, Delta Shneider were the brands and Chinese brands like Growatt and K star were trying to enter into the arena. There was no other company in India that time who was even thinking of manufacturing Solar inverters in India.
I remember the fire in his eyes, back in 2015. He showed us two prototypes: a sleek high-frequency Solar inverter, meant to challenge China's dominance, and a robust, isolation transformer-based Solar Inverter model which could work on the Battery as well without the battery to garner the solar energy designed to bring steady power to India’s villages, Africa, and the Middle East, with or without battery with Solar panels, places where the grid was a cruel joke. so that kind of markets could be taken care by developing both technologies at the same time. What a vison he had in 2015 when no one selling Grid inverters for homes and offices only big MW projects were done under the various Govt incentivized schemes. Where Su-kam had already done 2 big MW projects in Chennai Metro and Gurgaon Metro where the Chinese Inverters were installed, and Mr. Sachdev knew at that time that wave for these Solar Inverters being installed for homes, offices and schools etc. is on the way. https://youtu.be/zZHW_YaAobc?si=IXkpX-ZzWMrsdwxu. He was the first person to install big Mega Watt solar projects in India.
He wasn't just building inverters; he was building resilience. His transformer-based tech, showcased in videos from Su-kam’s Solar Channel, could stabilize power without batteries, a lifeline in regions plagued by blackouts. https://youtu.be/igvB8GEqd10?si=yF6oEj1JKMLzIRm0
By 2015, Sachdev filed patents that would have outpaced global giants in the solar industry and storage solution industry but after his displacement no one followed on those patents and India lost on to the technology patents which would have been a great asset of India. he made both type of Solar Inverters which were Grid Feed Solar High frequency and Solar Hybrid Inverter with Isolation transformer. He launched both the products and tested it more than 100 number of installations and i tried to find from the dealers and they said the product is doing fine. But now the market is filled with 99% Chinese Solar inverters as Indian companies are just importing and doing the labelling where as Mr. Sachdev made and tested this technology in 2016 and 2017 and before he could build the market for these Solar Inverters in India, Su-kam went to bankruptcy in 2018 https://ibbi.gov.in//webadmin/pdf/order/2019/Apr/3rd%20Apr%202019%20in%20the%20matter%20of%20Su%20Kam%20Power%20Systems%20Limited%20C.A.%20569%20(PB)%20-2019%20in%20Company%20Petition%20No.%20(IB)-540(PB)-2017_2019-04-16%2017:45:04.pdf and after that period slowly India is filled with 100% dominance from China in this sector.
There was a news item in the PV magazine which wrote an interview of Kunwer Sachdev having an informal question answer sessions where Mr. Sachdev told the correspondent about the company developed the Solar hybrid inverter the article is attached for the reference. https://www.pv-magazine-india.com/2018/03/05/interview-su-kam-is-building-solar-hybrid-inverters/
Dealers from Afghanistan to Nigeria clamored for Su-kam inverters. "Make in India, for the world," he'd say, export receipts piling high.
Then, the storm hit. A financial dispute, a cascade of legal battles, the cold grip of the NCLT. By 2018, the labs fell silent. The innovator was branded a "thief," hounded by agencies that should have been his allies.
And here’s where India lost:
Technological Leadership: Sachdev's patents, his innovative designs, were left to gather dust. India lost its chance to lead the solar inverter market, to dictate the technology, not just follow.
Export Dominance: The export markets he’d opened, the contracts he’d secured, vanished. India lost its foothold in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, ceding ground to Chinese manufacturers.
Economic Independence: Today, 99% of India’s solar inverters are Chinese. We’re dependent, not self-reliant. Every rupee spent on imports is a rupee lost to Indian innovation, Indian jobs.
Rural Empowerment: His transformer-based Solar grid feed and Hybrid inverters, crucial for unstable grids, could have transformed rural economies. Now, villages rely on cheaper Chinese Solar Inverters having lot of service issues where companies importing from China are not able to support as they made their money.
National Pride: We lost a symbol of Indian ingenuity. A man who could have been a national hero, a testament to "Make in India," was instead silenced.
I hold onto the videos, the proof of his vision. this video was launched in 2016 for the awareness of Indian market where the Solar Hybrid Inverter is shown, and its usage and more than 500 installations are done at that time which are still working flawless.https://youtu.be/zZHW_YaAobc?si=IXkpX-ZzWMrsdwxu
They called him a thief. But he was a visionary, a patriot. He wanted India to shine, to lead. And we, as a nation, let that light go out.
The Chinese inverters hum their foreign tune, a constant reminder of what we lost. A man, a dream, a chance to rewrite India's energy future.
A salute to the hero India forgot. A question, to India, when will you remember?"