Apeiro Energy, incorporated in 2021 and headquartered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, is a renewable energy tech start-up, working in the small vertical axis wind turbines and renewable distributed, microgrid and minigrid spaces. Apeiro is one of the few firms in India working to tackle the energy crisis in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, which face frequent power outages and receive less than 10 hours of electricity daily. Recently, the company commissioned a 10 kW wind-solar hybrid microgrid that powers a community of 30 households, a temple and a community space in Ghoghatpada village, Mumbai. This innovative project has garnered eyeballs on social media as it is one of the few projects in the country using small-scale vertical axis wind turbines. In an interview with Renewable Watch, Kalpit Prajapati, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apeiro Energy, talks about the company’s key product offerings, targets and future plans, and challenges and policy suggestions in the minigrid space in India…
What is the current portfolio of Apeiro Energy and its product offerings in India? Please share a case study of one of your recent projects.
Apeiro is involved in developing small wind turbines ranging in capacity from 100 W to 25 kW, and technology solutions for the monitoring and management of turbines. The following are our product offerings:
iWind turbines: iWind vertical small wind turbines are patent-pending wind turbines with capacities ranging from 1 kW to 50 kW systems. These turbines are aerodynamically designed, using complex CFD models and simulated to ensure an optimum Cp at low wind speed operating ranges of 4-6 m/s.
iWind wind turbine controller: A custom developed wind turbine control system, which is designed according to the generational characteristics of our wind turbines. Together, they provide a system efficiency of over 90 per cent.
iWind smart monitoring system: An internet of things edge computing solution with an integrated cloud dashboard that monitors turbine performance parameters such as RPM, torque, wind speed, current, voltage and wind direction.
iWind energy management system: A smart energy management system that synchronises the performance of multiple turbines installed together in a cluster while also integrating turbines and other renewable energy solutions with an off-grid/on-grid set-up.
iWind micro siting AI tool: An AI micrositing tool that utilises open-source satellite data, historical measured data sets and 3D site modelling to enhance site feasibility study for wind-solar hybrid microgrid/minigrid projects.
Currently, Apeiro is working on wind-solar minigrid pilot projects of 6-20 kW capacities, planned to launch commercially in March 2025, with community wind-solar minigrids for villages; commercial microgrids for hospitals, plantations, schools and townships; and industrial microgrids.
In March 2024, we successfully commissioned a 10 kW wind-solar hybrid microgrid, “iWind Hygrid”. This 10 kW iWind Hygrid today powers a community of 30 households, a temple and a community space in Ghoghatpada village, around 60 km from Mumbai, through the harshest monsoon, which was not possible with stand-alone solar.
What is the business model of the company and how has it evolved over the years?
We work in two ways – first, as an independent microgrid project developer whereby we onboard customers and install 10-50 kW wind-solar hybrid microgrids; and second, by partnering with existing microgrid/minigrid project developers and acting as their small wind technology provider.
What are the recent investments in the company and your future targets and expansion plans?
This year we raised scale-up grants from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Tide 2.0 Scale Up Programme as well as from the Social Innovation Lab by Citi and SIIC IIT Kanpur Incubation Centre. These grants were essential in taking us from technology readiness level (TRL) 4 to TRL 7, and we are planning to raise a seed round of $1.5 million to $2 million by early next year.
The market for small vertical wind turbines is at a nascent stage and the components market will grow alongside the vertical wind turbine market. Our research and development (R&D) plan is focused on all-round development of the complete vertical wind technology and that is what we will be commercialising.
India presents a vast opportunity for us and we also intend to scale up in the African market, one of the fastest-growing markets, where microgrids/minigrids are an absolute necessity. Besides, we have queries coming from countries across the world such as the US, Brazil, Canada, Sweden, Russia, the UAE, Singapore, Australia and Indonesia.
What are the cost trends for small vertical axis wind turbines in the country? What can be done to reduce the costs going forward?
Just like any other new technology, vertical axis wind turbines are currently costly, thereby making their early adoption a bit difficult. The levellised cost of electricity of vertical axis wind turbines right now is around Rs 6-Rs 7 per unit as compared to Rs 3-Rs 4 per unit of solar. There are multiple reasons for this, such as lack of economies of scale, no policy support and the high costs of rare earth metals. These can be solved easily. Economies of scale can be achieved if demand is there; demand will be generated with policy support; and cost appropriations can be done if technical advances are made possible for building rare earth-free generators for small wind turbines, which we are working on.
Vertical axis wind turbines as an R&D technology are difficult to design but when the manufacturing is put to scale, the cost of energy from such turbines can be less than solar.
In your opinion, what are the major challenges associated with the scaling up of distributed renewable minigrid projects in India?
Scaling minigrids in India comes with huge challenges such as high capital costs, project approvals, local politics, high opex, end-user financing, limited capital finance options, high certification fees, integration with distribution companies, etc. These issues are not so big that they cannot be solved with proper policy support from the government – this we have seen with the solar industry, where the costs have dropped significantly between 2014 and 2020, because of which the Indian solar industry is expected to be valued at $230 million by 2030.
What are your policy suggestions to the government for making this space more viable in the coming years?
Renewable wind-solar hybrid minigrids can be an integral part of our current centralised grid energy system and grid-connected minigrids can provide an added layer of energy security, compensating for grid downtimes and reducing our dependence on coal-based electricity.
A strong policy framework is needed, mainly around three primary areas.
Minigrid R&D: Partnerships between the industry and start-ups/educational institutions including problem statements, funding and development.
Testing/Certification/Licensing: For a strong ecosystem it is important to test for credible technologies. For this, we need appropriate and relevant testing and certification standards. The current testing standards for small wind turbines are not very relevant to operational conditions and this can be improved.
Discom integration and project deployment policies: Discoms are an integral part of our grid structure. To utilise the full benefits of minigrids, a framework needs to be built around how minigrids can be integrated with discoms for grid-connected community microgrids to be a scalable market.
