The recently held Solar Leadership Series, a proprietary event by Greenlight Planet brought together experts from across industries to explore the potential of Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) technology in achieving energy inclusion.
Aptly titled “Pay-As-You-Go: The Panacea for Energy Poverty”, this first-of-its-kind event was aimed at accelerating the pace of PAYG adoption in India. The event saw the participation of several industry experts including Rajpal Duggal – Oxigen Services India, Charu Chadha – GSMA, Johanna Diecker – GOGLA, Harihara Mohapatra – CLEAN, Vivek Tiwari – Satya Micro Capital, Rajeev Palakshappa – IFC, Alexie Seller – Pollinate Energy, Vibhuti Garg – IISD and PAYG veteran Sanjay Bharti contribute as panelists.
The first panel discussion, “Digitization of Distribution and Financing Channels through Pay-As-You-Go” saw optimism in the extensive possibilities PAYG has to offer. “PAYG, with its unique data analytics advantage allows for a better understanding of customer demographics and repayment rates. This can be used to make better lending decisions by financial institutions,” said Johanna Diecker. Sanjay Bharti said that he believes PAYG could be a big push for digitization, adding “PAYG’s digitised operations leads to a better product design, optimization of operations and a more controlled supply chain mechanism.”
The second panel discussed “Linking Energy Inclusion and Distribution Channels for BoP”. Rajpal Duggal said “Since access to clean lighting is a critical need, we may see mobile wallet use increase in India’s BoP market.” Vivek Tiwari added, “PAYG solar opens the market for small distribution companies providing solar solutions in remote rural areas.”
Alexie Seller hailed PAYG as a complete package for addressing energy poverty, “The key success of PAYG in India will be real-time information exchange between solution providers and consumers.”
The Solar Leadership Series 1.0 reinforced Greenlight Planet’s belief that Pay-As-You-Go is the financing revolution waiting to transform clean energy access. The company has completed a series of successful EasyBuy pilots in India, and is planning to scale these learnings across current and potential partners.
With 240 million Indians still living off the grid, the lack of access to reliable, affordable energy, as well as limited solar financing options remains a major barrier to development. Greenlight Planet’s own PAYG technology-enabled products have seen exponential growth in Africa since its introduction in 2015.
The next event in the Solar Leadership Series will be scheduled shortly as Greenlight Planet expects to get a deeper into understanding the challenges and way forward for the PAYG industry.