BIS TECHNOVATORS | Aegeus Robotic Solutions Paving Way for Solar Market
Aegeus Technologies plans to achieve the transformation of India’s clean energy market with sustainable means while having its headquarters at Bengaluru. Aegeus offers to develop technologies and solutions for protecting and using energy efficiently and sustainably across various industries and utilities. Aimed to revolutionize India’s clean energy market with its Waterless Solar Panel Cleaning Robot namely, Unicorn and Shreem are exclusively designed for rooftop solar installations.
Introducing their Waterless Solar Panel Cleaning that uses a dry-cleaning technique to enhance the capability of the solar energy harnessing system, Aegeus plans to improve ROI for leading energy conglomerates of Solar Power Energy Market.
In the latest talk with Aishwarya from BISinfotech; Suraj Vernekar, Co-Founder & CEO, Aegeus Technologies talks about challenges and scopes in the Renewables sector.
- Please elaborate about Aegeus Technologies unique services and the role of Robotics and IoT in it.
Aegeus Technologies aims to design and develop robotic technologies and solutions. The company’s flagship product is the Intelligent Waterless Solar Panel Cleaning Robot which helps customers reduce soiling losses, increase solar plant efficiency and save huge amounts of water.
The organization engages with the customers right from the design stage to understand their challenges, develop products, and offer services to improve efficiency. Also, their products and solutions help protect the environment. Aegeus is deploying image recognition, IoT, and ML technology in their autonomous solar panel cleaning robots.
2. How do you differentiate Aegeus from other clean energy technology Companies?
Aegeus Technologies operates at the intersection of two of the world’s biggest challenges- clean energy generation and water conservation.
Today, solar panels are deployed at a massive scale to help drive the transition towards clean energy. But, Soiling is a major challenge that can reduce the plant efficiency anyway between 3-40%. Present method of cleaning uses another valuable natural resource… water. We offer Intelligent Waterless Solar Panel cleaning robots which help our customers improve efficiency and conserve water.
We are the only Indian company with an indigenous technology for intelligent waterless cleaning of solar panels and that we are unique to any other design in the world. We have received patents in India and have applied for patents across different parts of the world.
3. Which sectors are your key focus areas and upcoming projects?
We are currently focused on helping customers truly produce clean energy. We will continue to develop products and solution that help improve efficiency, conserve natural resources. Unicorn is an intelligent waterless solar panel cleaning robot ideally suited for large ground mount projects. We have now developed Shreem suited for rooftop installations and have also introduced hand-held dry-cleaning brush for small residential rooftops. The solar adoption is increasing at an exponential rate and we are geared up to cater to the market demands.
We have a strong understanding of the Robotics & IOT technology and have a roadmap to develop products for diverse challenges becoming sector agnostic.
4. How did your Solar panel Cleaning Robot help in country’s solar energy technology adoption?
Our robots have helped save millions of liters of water, improve the plant efficiency and reduce carbon footprint. The installations in India are on uneven surfaces and have large undulations, making it challenging for the robotic cleaning. However, our design is ideally suited for such conditions and has helped customers deploy robotic cleaning.
5. Is there any expectation from the government? Explain.
The entire Western US is in the grip of extreme drought. We are staring at a similar situation if we do not take adequate measures in India. Nearly half of India’s population, faces extreme water stress. Therefore water conservation is no more a fad – it’s the only way for survival. MNRE has to impose a huge cost on usage of water for cleaning of the solar modules. We cannot solve one problem by creating another.
6. How did your company cope during COVID-19 and any plans for expansion?
The vagaries of weather and the pandemic has been a major roadblock in our journey. Like any startup, funds became a major bottleneck.
We owe our success to the strong team, who persisted despite all the challenges. We are driven by a strong passion and are now backed up by investors who firmly believe in our capabilities and support our vision. We are strongly poised for growth not just in India but in the global markets as well. We are receiving a lot of traction from the global customers considering the unique benefits of our design.
7. Challenges and scope in the industry?
The technology adoption has been slower than expected, however the glaring water scarcity is pushing the industry towards robotic cleaning.
Solar Panel Cleaning Market size exceeded USD 560 million in 2019 and is estimated to achieve over 11% CAGR through 2026. Rising solar PV installation trends along with decreasing overall unit cost will drive the industry potential. In addition, growing focus toward panel efficiency optimization followed by increasing renewable integration across the global energy mix will positively stimulate the industry landscape.
8. Lastly major trends you see catapulting and dominating the clean energy industry in coming time?
It could atleast take next 30 years to transition to a fully clean energy production. However, by 2030 atleast 80% of the worldwide energy will be generated by renewable sources. On site, On Demand decentralized generation with a combination of PV solar, wind & biomass fuel could be a strong possibility. Storage is another area which is seeing huge traction at the moment. Green hydrogen is another source of renewable energy which is expected to grow. However, the fundamental question we need to answer, ‘Are we truly producing clean energy, that preserves our natural resources, protects the environment?’
