This is a show for the leaders of
tomorrow.
You're listening to stories of -
innovators creating groundbreaking
technology -
- and change makers that are
- shaping the way we live our lives.
I'm your host Hussain -
and you're joining me,
while we're peeking into the future.
Welcome to the Spark Podcast!
(Hussain) Hi! Welcome to the Spark Podcast.
- Our guest today is the Senior Vice President of Scorpius trackers -
- a multinational
renewable energy company based out of Pune.
This company has implemented projects in -
- Japan, the Middle East, Africa and has
upcoming projects in the United States and many parts of India.
He's among the top celebrated leaders of the industry -
- and has pioneered the growth of clean
tech in India.
- With an experience of over 10 years, please welcome Mr. Ritesh Pothan to the Spark Podcast.
(Ritesh) Thanks. It's a pleasure.
(Hussain) Mr. Pothan, let's get on with the
first question.
- What is your company, Scorpius Trackers, trying to accomplish?
(Ritesh) So Scorpius Trackers is a global leader in single axis tracking technology for solar projects -
- largely solar farms.
We have our own R&D; we are the only company in the globe that has -
both types of technologies for single axis tracking.
Scorpius Trackers has been around
for now almost half a decade and we've -
- been very innovative in design; so it's a
completely Made in India, designed, patented -
globally patented product.
- The advantage that we bring to the table is that we bring -
the highest quality possible - the - the
it's got cutting edge design and it has -
- zero maintenance requirement from a
mechanical perspective.
The solar tracking is basically - just to expand on
solar tracking -  solar tracking maximizes
the efficiency of a solar panel, by
making sure it's always perpendicular to the Sun -
- at all points in time in the day.
(Hussain) Right and you speak of green energy -
with great passion but your career - if we go back - it started with IT services
- and then you transitioned to
green energy almost a decade ago.
- Could you tell us a little bit how this
transition happened?
(Ritesh) Right so I did my Computer Engineering,  then my Masters and I was also a writer in IT -
- I used to write for chip magazine, I did a couple of blogs as well and later on I went on -
- to be a consultant as well as a
as a CIO. So from my perspective, when I -
- became a CIO, that was not only handling
networks. I was handling civil, security -
- information security; there was
a lot of responsibility that I had and -
- one of that was also electrical where - solar I mean around that time 2009
- was when the NSM(National Solar Mission) came out and solar was like the buzzword and to be really -
- honest I was looking for something that
gave back rather than something that -
- always was taking from the environment.
(Hussain) Right when you say that - when you say -
- back in 2009, this was when solar became
a buzzword, especially back at that time -
when compared to today, the market wasn't
as mature. So what were the main -
challenges that you faced earlier in those years - during 2009 - when you transitioned into the green energy
industry?
(Ritesh) So it was very fluid, but I am always been someone who takes - I mean - more of a pioneering attitude -
- I mean I like the risk, I like
the fact that it's the startup sort of -
- environment and that gives you a lot of
opportunity to learn -
- a lot of opportunity to make mistakes, learn from your mistakes.
- So it's not something that's an
established field - where everybody knows what they're doing -
- and plus it was - it gives
me a tremendous opportunity to learn and
that's what I always believed. I believe that if you're not learning - you're dead.
- So that's where I come from so and the way that it worked out,
- the initial challenges that we faced were obviously projects,
- then the fact that because it was so fluid, most of the deals that happened fell through.
Funding, was a bit of a challenge in the initial part because -
you had to actually put your own skill in the game.
- That was one of the concerns, and then -
there was always risk of -
- of new - new EPCs or
- new installations that -
- maybe would perform - would not perform.
(Hussain) Your career has spanned across various -
- industries and you've worked with many
leading companies in their respective fields.
- What do you observe as the core
differences between a green energy
organization and any other organization?
(Ritesh) Honestly I think the Green energy organizations now recently become large.
- Previously, they were not that large. So they were like pretty nimble, everybody ran after projects -
- they were able to complete it. There was not so
much bureaucracy, it was easy to get in touch -
with the upper echelons of other
company, people networked together.
It was more of a fraternity and I think that is where the advantages came in and you -
- There wasn't really animosity was more of a -
fraternity sort of where everybody -
everybody wanted to get the work done -
- rather than pull somebody else's leg. And
that's something that I think is - I mean -
- you're not worried about someone else
trying to pull your leg. So lately that has -
- been the -  that has been the credo right
now over the last two three years -
- because once the stability set in, the
big guy started coming in and they
started cannibalizing and they started
overtaking the market right - I mean -
- there's not enough for everyone.
(Hussain) You've worked with many international markets -
- you've successfully implemented
projects in Japan, in the Middle East, even Africa -
- How do we fare against the
quality of skilled labor against other nations?
- The way the way our business is
growing, the way our expertise is with solar,
- whether it could be about manufacturing or EPCs - how do we fare?
Do we have the innovation that other countries have?
- You want me to be honest? We are at the bottom. -
- And why is that the case?
- Because I mean, we do a lot of 'jugaad' and by 'jugaad', I mean, a lot of people, I've seen designers
- who are like a couple of years out of school, out of college -
- designing plants which are like of thousand crores -
- And they are basing it based on just some
- irrational logic and everybody even - 
I mean it's - it's in the beginning there -
- was a lot of caution, there was a 
lot - a lot of safety built in,  there was -
- a lot of focus on the long-term. 
Right now, the focus is completely short-term.
I mean if the plant gets built, that is one -
that is a big thing right now.
(Hussain) And what are we doing to ensure that changes?
(Ritesh) So I mean, as Scorpius Trackers -
- what we've done is we had a workshop
where we called in a lot of the
- designers and we ran them through the
kind of quality that we - you need to do.
- I'll give you an example right - most of
the plants in India, I mean all the - all the -
all the - structures are designed in
India have no basis - have never really been tested -
- and you will see a lot of
them fly off when there is some heavy wind -
- because the designer
themselves don't have - they are designing -
- on some archaic code which is like 50
years old and it doesn't consider a lot -
of things for - for solar structures
because they act like they have an
aerodynamic sort of profile. So you need
to make sure that they are able to stick
to the ground; so there's something
called a Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Testing Facility -
- which doesn't - doesn't
have in India, that is something that -
- nobody does because they all claim on
paper. It's like designing on paper.
It's like designing a car on paper and saying it's working perfectly right?
- That's the thing that we've
seen. We've seen that people are willing
to take that kind of risk and because
the funding, but if you do this
internationally that's not acceptable.
They need manageability, they need to
check everything, you need to have a wind tunnel report -
- You need to have a lot of things. Indian
markets don't appreciate quality, let's be honest about it.
Indian markets appreciate quality, they're always looking at price. It's about price price price basically -
the way that you should actually look at an engineering is first see if its matches the technical -
- whether the technical is good enough, and then move onto price.
- But, in India, it's always price price price.
(Hussain) When you talk about the Indian market being sensitive towards price and not the -
- quality aspect of it and then you also
speak about the quality of the engineers,
the effort they're putting to design a
product that will survive [in the] long run.
- Who's at fault here?
- Are we not trying enough to -
facilitate the kind of market growth?
(Ritesh) It's more of an ethical issue. It's more of the fact that the Indian mentality is not professional - let's be honest about it.
- Everybody thinks they know everything.
So they don't respect a professional, that's the problem in India, that's the bottomline.
- The bottomline in India is that, if you're a professional, if you talk to someone -
- you say 'I don't know', they think that it's like a big deal.
But as professional, you know there are things that you don't know.
- That's where you actually realize but -
- in the industry right now if you go
- to the industry, every engineer passing out from college
he looks at 3-4 plants and thinks he knows everything.
- If you see a lot of - to be honest, there are exceptions of course there are exceptions but -
- they get - they get pushed down because the Yes Men tend to get pushed ahead.
- At the end of the day it's all about -
- the bottom line on
the excel sheet whether it works and
then converting that excel sheet into a
project - that's really not how it happens, right?
- I'll give you so many examples like some say that this code is not applicable, we don't care about the code -
who's going to check it, who's going to
do anything, so it's the mentality.
- Sadly enough it's the 'jugaad' mentality.
- Everybody knows about it, everybody is aware about it and -
- but it's the
mentality that has the - that has a -
problem - that needs to change - the 'jugaad'.
I understand 'jugaad' is good, but it's good if -
- you use it with good engineering,
rather than just trying to make-do with
what you have and then later on -- that's - that's dangerous - that's very dangerous.
You're not taking into consideration the fact that tomorrow - that - there could be injuries, there could -
be safety issues. There have already been
issues where people have died, but those
get swept under the carpet. There
have been issues when the plant has flown off -
- but those again get swept under the carpet right.
(Hussain) So the bottom-line is that there are no consequences to any inferior projects?
(Ritesh) Yes. I mean if -
the boss says do it in this cost and he says
do it in this cost,  he'll try to make it lower -
to show-off to his boss.
Professionalism, to be honest, does not
exist in the industry right - the solar industry. At the end of the day, how do you talk to someone who knows everything?
(Hussain) When there is such a rise in new organizations and new entrepreneurs who are coming up with
(ventures in) renewable energy, what advice do you have
in terms of the key requisites that you -
have to have to start and grow and
sustain a renewable energy organization?
Factoring in your first point of ethical business, what are the other key pre-requisites?
(Ritesh) I think it's important to ensure that you have your engineering done right.
At the end of the day, the only - how does a person who is focused on quality survive? It's very difficult.
-I mean yes he can, but he will not thrive in the Indian market because there is always someone willing to undercut him -
- maybe 10% - 20% percent. There's no rationale, to be really honest.
- If you really - a lot of - if you see almost 80% of the guys who have started up - everybody - you could just
maybe, who was an electrician thought that
he could be an installer right because -
they think it's just about connecting
cables - there's no real engineering.
- So there are some organizations that are doing that but, to be honest, the solar industry has gone through a downturn.
In fact, it has dropped. Installations have dropped under the current government by -
- almost 50% because there's no real incentive.
The situation is very bleak - I would say stay out of it, but if you are looking to get in it -
you need to have good engineering, you need to have a
niche market, you need to focus on what -
you have and maybe you will have to
ride it through. There will be times where it's going to be-
- very very difficult for you to survive, which is why most of the -
international organizations are
refusing to put in projects. A lot of the -
top EPCs gave one of the developers, a
design which was let's say about 25 tons
for a very high wind load. When the
developer got the EPCs to redo their
design using a Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel, the tonnage increased by almost more than -
60%! That's the kind of under-engineering
that happens and this is happening with
- some of the top names.
(Hussain) Mr. Pothan, you
speak about government incentives and -
how the government slashed down prices of the solar products. We're also looking at -
the contrary - we're looking at government
policies that have helped a lot of
businesses, they've encouraged the
growth of the renewable energy adoption.
- Could you name a policy that
has helped your business, in any way?
(Ritesh) There are none.
(Hussain) Maybe not your business, but has improved
the spectrum of solar in India?
(Ritesh) Right now, I think there is some standards that are being worked in -
- maybe BIS standards and the fact that - that is a slow process.
I think that will happen but the standards need to be managed well, it needs to be - there are a lot of old things that -
need to be updated - that's very important.
But last couple of years has been pretty bad -
- for the industry. I think moving forward, unless
there is something consolidated done to
push and to create, it's going to die a slow death.
(Hussain) What could we learn from other countries and
what policy can we particularly
implement in India to enhance the growth
- of the industry?
(Ritesh) I think we need to focus on freight and tariff, we need to focus on quality, we need to have a balanced set -
- of guidelines. Something that promotes both quality as well as quantity - does not only focus on price. A lot of -
- things that need to be done but it needs
somebody with a technical with -
- technical and commercial graphs at the helm. Right now, from what we've seen, the government is being run by bureaucrats.
(Hussain) So in that case, don't you think that it's the
responsibility of the existing
solar businesses to lobby against the government for policies that could work?
(Ritesh) Yes, so that's something that's had limited success - very limited success and plus the industry right now is very -
it's - is not cohesive right now.
Once upon a time that used to happen but that's no longer the case.
It's definitely something that's required - something that's necessary.
(Hussain) Right Mr. Pothan, we've come to the end
of the interview.
One last question to you.
- What is one popular myth about green energy that you can debunk for us today?
(Ritesh) It's only in India where people keep claiming that cheapest is the best.
So that's the myth where people just install plants and -
- they buy it at cheap rate and then later it doesnt work and then they say -
- the technology is faulty. It's what you get what you pay for.
You pay peanuts, you get monkeys right.
That's you - you've gotta understand that if you don't focus on quality,
- if you're just focusing on - on the price, at
the end of the day it's going to bite you.
- You don't get - paid the cheapest 
and get it - you can't buy a Mercedes at a Maruti rate, right?
(Hussain) Right, so Mr. Pothan, at that quote we'll wrap up the interview.
I would request you to give
one advice to any entrepreneurs, engineers -
- who are focused to be a part of
the renewable energy industry and the -
leaders of tomorrow. Maybe the spectrum
changes but what advice do you have for them?
(Ritesh) Be a professional. Don't - don't be a  'jugaadu', be a professional -
- Yes you can do, you can do innovation
- you can do jugaad, but that's when sometimes.
- Be a professional, respect other professionals, right.
That's the important thing.
Have the ability to say that I don't know.
- It's okay. If you're a Mechanical guy, you can't do Electrical design, right?  You can do maybe - you can do a little bit but -
that doesn't make you a know-it-all so be a professional.
- That's something that I would say to -
everybody that goes out of engineering.
Be a professional, respect professionals,
respect advice and don't give the wrong
advice. That's something that we've seen also.
A lot of consultants just give
advice because they just don't have an option.
- So look for quality, be a professional -
- if you don't know say No and give the right
advice. If you don't know say No don't -
- just give some advice.
(Hussain) And you heard that from Mr. Ritesh Pothan.
He is the senior leader of Scorpius Trackers. A company
based in Pune. He's been working towards
- sustainable and renewable energy for
over 10 years and his company has
- implemented projects in Japan, Africa,
the Middle East and multiple cities of India.
Thank you Mr.Pothan, we're sure our listeners have had an incredible value -
from this interview and it was fantastic
talking to you.
Thank you for being a part of the Spark Podcast.
(Ritesh) Yeah, pleasure is mine. Take care.
(Hussain) Thank you for listening to the Spark Podcast.
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I'll see you in the next episode of the Spark, till then - goodbye.
