The 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 Rajpal Duggal - Oxigen Services India,
Charu Chadha - GSMA, Johanna Diecker - GOGLA, Harihara Mohapatra - CLEAN, Vivek
Tiwari - Satya Microcapital, Rajeev Palakshappa - IFC, Alexie Seller -
Pollinate Energy, Vibhuti Garg - IISD and PAYG veteran Sanjay Bharti contribute
as panelists.
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 (EasyBuy), has seen exponential growth in Africa
since its introduction in 2015.
"EasyBuy benefits everyone involved. For financing
partners, it reduces the credit risk involved with technology that shuts down
the devices on non-payment, and for off-grid customers, it enables them to
access consumer financing, aligned with their incomes and build credit history.
Once they build credit history with timely repayment of these basic solar
devices, it unlocks huge market of potential consumers that are currently out
of the financial system. From our experience in Africa, we've learnt that for
PAYG technologies to work, it is essential to build an ecosystem of strategic
partnerships involving distribution networks, digital payment providers and
financial institutions. As we entered the Indian market, the Solar Leadership
Series was born as a way for us to reach across the board and build scalable
business solutions together," said Dhaval Radia, Global Business Leader at
Greenlight Planet.
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 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. 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.
(ANI-BusinessWire India)
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