The Need of the hour is the transition from non-renewable energy to renewable energy. The Industry is surely growing but on the other hand, India doesn’t have many firmly established Renewable Energy generating companies that is where companies like Orb Energy come in and try to fill that gap. Orb Energy is a solar energy company headquartered in Bangalore, India. Orb Energy attended the Intersolar 2019 event in Bangalore and had a talk with Smartsustain about the whole scenario of and factors affecting the renewable energy industry.
Orb Energy was founded by Damian Miller and NP Ramesh in 2006. By 2007, Orb was operational in India with the mission to make solar energy affordable, available, and hassle-free to customers looking for a better energy alternative. Since its founding, Orb has sold more than 160,000 solar systems, with cumulative installations of more than 75MW of rooftop solar systems.
Orb provides a range of solar energy solutions (solar electricity and solar water heating) to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Orb’s focus is particularly Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) as they are a largely under-served part of the market. To enable SMEs to afford solar, Orb has set-up an in-house finance facility to provide extended payment terms to commercial and industrial customers. Damian Miller speaks to SmartSustain at Intersolar 2019
Why 552 Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) why so much support for SMEs?
“SMEs are a very very good segment, about 40% of India’s industrial output is delivered by SMEs, But SMEs have a hard time finding good access to both finance as well as product. So, as a company we bring them both financing and solar system and SEMs in that sense, very appreciative of having the total package on their door.“, said Damian Miller, co-founder of Orb Energy.
The Collateral Free Loans for Rooftop Solar systems
“Very Specifically, SMEs struggle to get finance because, many of them have already used their collateral, banks don’t give them loans without collateral. So, it’s particularly hard for them to get a solar system, in that sense, finance is critical, we bridge that gap by developing our own in-house finance, we give 3-4 year loans, take a 25% down payment and that enables them to take it.
In the market there is nobody else to address this issue, so, what we would encourage them to do, is make rooftop solar for SMEs – the priority sector alone and also enable vendors like us to take their money and pass it on (Funding) to SMEs,” added Damian Miller, Co-founder of Orb Energy.
Damian further goes on to tell Smartsustain how Shell investing in the Orb Energy is a positive thing as Shell is in the industry with a long-term vision, especially, when the industry is facing a downturn this year. He also lays emphasis on how Orb Energy has focused on its service factor to satisfy its customers.
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