Mr. Sachdev was always full of energy and ready with his next plan the moment the first was complete. He never wasted time resting, and he carried many dreams for the Indian solar industry. One such dream was to build indigenous solar hybrid inverters — at a time when solar inverter design was the forte of the USA and manufacturing the forte of China. Almost all solar inverters were made in China, the reputed manufacturers were European or American, and Chinese local brands were just beginning to enter the arena.
SMA, Fronius, ABB and Delta-Schneider were the established brands, while Chinese brands like Growatt and K-Star were trying to break in. There was no other company in India at that time even thinking of manufacturing solar inverters domestically.
There was a fire in his eyes back in 2015. He showed his team two prototypes: a sleek high-frequency solar inverter, meant to challenge China’s dominance, and a robust, isolation-transformer-based solar inverter that could work with or without a battery to harness solar energy — designed to bring steady power to India’s villages, Africa and the Middle East, places where the grid was a cruel joke. Developing both technologies at the same time meant both kinds of markets could be served. What a vision he had in 2015, when no one was selling grid inverters for homes and offices and only big MW projects were being done under various government-incentivised schemes. Su-Kam had already completed two big MW projects — at Chennai Metro and Gurgaon Metro — where Chinese inverters were installed, and Mr. Sachdev knew the wave of solar inverters for homes, offices and schools was on its way. He was among the first to install big megawatt solar projects in India.
He wasn’t just building inverters; he was building resilience. His transformer-based technology, showcased in videos from Su-Kam’s solar channel, could stabilise power without batteries — a lifeline in regions plagued by blackouts.
By 2015, Sachdev had filed patents that would have outpaced global giants in the solar and storage industries, but after his displacement no one followed through on those patents, and India lost technology patents that would have been a great national asset. He built both types of solar inverter — a grid-feed solar high-frequency model and a solar hybrid model with an isolation transformer. He launched both products and tested them across more than 100 installations; when dealers were asked, they reported the product was performing fine. Today the market is filled with 99% Chinese solar inverters, with Indian companies largely importing and re-labelling, whereas Mr. Sachdev had made and tested this technology in 2016 and 2017. Before he could build the market for these solar inverters in India, Su-Kam went into bankruptcy in 2018 — and after that period, India was slowly filled with near-total dominance from China in this sector.
The industry press covered his work at the time: pv magazine India ran an interview in which Kunwer Sachdev described how the company had developed the solar hybrid inverter.
Dealers from Afghanistan to Nigeria clamoured for Su-Kam inverters. “Make in India, for the world,” he would say, as export receipts piled 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 is where India lost:
- Technological Leadership: Sachdev’s patents and innovative designs were left to gather dust. India lost its chance to lead the solar inverter market — to dictate the technology rather than follow it.
- Export Dominance: The export markets he had opened and the contracts he had 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. The country is dependent, not self-reliant. Every rupee spent on imports is a rupee lost to Indian innovation and 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 with many service issues, because the companies importing from China cannot support them after the sale.
- National Pride: India lost a symbol of its own ingenuity. A man who could have been a national hero, a testament to “Make in India,” was instead silenced.
The videos remain — proof of his vision. The 2016 awareness video above showed the solar hybrid inverter and its usage, with more than 500 installations done at the time, many still working flawlessly.
They called him a thief. But he was a visionary and a patriot. He wanted India to shine, to lead — and the nation let that light go out.
The Chinese inverters hum their foreign tune, a constant reminder of what was lost: a man, a dream, and a chance to rewrite India’s energy future.
A salute to the hero India forgot — and a question for India: when will you remember?
The story of what Kunwer Sachdev built — and what India’s solar industry lost — is documented in full at SolarManOfIndia.com. Related on this site: the China bite and the markets nobody was looking at and the Hybrid GTI inverter, his quiet revolution.
Disclaimer
Mr. Kunwer Sachdev, the original founder and visionary behind Su-Kam, is no longer associated with Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd. He has not been involved in the management, operations, or decision-making of the company for several years. Any products, services, communications, or representations made under the Su-Kam name have no connection to Mr. Kunwer Sachdev. His current efforts are entirely focused on new innovations and ventures under different entities, including his latest initiative, Su-vastika, which is redefining the energy storage and power backup industry.