Green Business
Tanya Singhal, shares insights on her entrepreneurial odyssey and commitment to sustainability
Q: How did you get into the renewable energy sector, and how has your journey evolved over the years?
In 2009, a few years into strategy consulting at the Boston Consulting Group, I attended a presentation that showed that a small box covering 7.5% of the desert on the map of India, once filled with solar panels was sufficient to power all of India! Awestruck by how powerful a force solar can be in solving our climate crisis, I followed my passion. I left my stable, flourishing consulting career and joined a solar engineering firm to understand how solar could work in India. Four years later in 2014, I started my entrepreneurial journey, and ‘SolarArise’ was born with a vision to make solar prices at par, or even lower, than conventional power and make solar a sustainable power solution. 10 years later, after raising and deploying >2000 Rs Cr of capital to successfully build 7 solar plants totaling ~half a GW over ~1500 acres of land at sub-coal power prices, I could power >250,000 homes and reduce >600,000 tons of CO2 emissions/annum and today our assets are listed as a part of a trust on the London Stock Exchange. Solar is now cheaper than fossil fuels, and it’s the talk of the town! Post the listing and my exit from SolarArise, continuing my passion for advancing carbon neutrality, I’m building ‘Mynzo’ – MyNetZero – for climate consciousness through technology and AI, aiming to foster a low-carbon world and address the climate crisis.
Q: Can you share some key learnings from your experience in founding and leading SolarArise, especially its growth on the London Stock Exchange?
SolarArise has been a full-on rollercoaster ride for me. Just like raising a child, for me, this has been a journey of grit and perseverance – there were times when things went completely off plan, we lost deals and investors said no, but I never gave up and kept going. My family and co-founders unconditionally supported me and that further empowered me. My biggest learning is, that nothing is impossible when you put your mind and heart to it and have the backing of your loved ones. I could achieve my original goal of making solar energy cheaper than coal and prove solar is no longer a CSR solution by listing the assets as a part of a trust on LSE and making a multi-fold return for my investors.
Q: What motivated you to establish Mynzo Carbon, and how does it differentiate itself in the market?
Even after decades of global negotiations, we are still at threat from this self-inflicted climate crisis and the 1.5-degree temperature rise target is bound to be breached. There is a lot we must all do, each of us, to move to a low-carbon world. While renewables will play a humongous path in this journey, in parallel my focus is now expanding to sensitizing and empowering individuals to become a part of this journey through technology solutions, working hand in hand with companies to accelerate our journey towards the NetZero goals. Mynzo Carbon stemmed from this vision of sensitizing individuals and corporations towards carbon consciousness. It differentiates itself by leveraging technology like AI and IoT to measure, reduce, and sequester carbon footprints, enabling personalized carbon neutrality solutions. I believe that sustainability is not just a choice, but a responsibility we all share towards the planet and future generations, and this urgency drives my passion.
Q: How does Mynzo Carbon’s approach to creating a ‘climate identity’ contribute to the broader goal of carbon neutrality?
You cannot reduce what you cannot measure. In order to take action, corporations & individuals need to have a clear understanding of their carbon footprint. For corporations, their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, especially Scope 3 are most difficult to measure and can be up to 90% of the total emissions. For Individuals, their contribution to climate change is through their lifestyle choices, electricity consumption, and travel habits. Without knowing the problem and being able to measure it, it is difficult to effectively reduce or offset emissions. Knowing one’s climate identity enables one to comprehend the magnitude of their contribution to climate change and empowers one to take subtle steps toward reducing their emissions, without drastically changing their business or lifestyle.
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