Around the world, the lockdown measures to contain the pandemic have led to economic contraction and a significant drop in energy consumption including electricity, gas, and oil. CEOs, experts, and policymakers are still taking stock of the impacts of COVID-19 on the energy landscape and what it means for the ongoing transition to sustainable energy. In India, the renewable sector, including large hydro, accounted for 15.6 percent of the generation in January, which is a lean season for hydro. Solar, wind, small hydro, biomass ― officially referred to as RE in India ― contributed 9.11 percent, up from 8.55 percent in the same period last year.
To enlighten us more about the concept, co-founders of Skilancer Solar, Manish Das, and Neeraj Kumar give us more details.
Please elaborate on the functioning of Skilancer Solar.
Skilancer Solar is the brainchild of Mr. Manish Das & Mr. Neeraj Kumar. The solar panel cleaning robot was developed by Neeraj as a part of his final year college project. Upon working in the solar industry, he realised that his college project could be utilised to solve a major problem that is being encountered by every solar plant across the world. So Neeraj and Manish took a step to revolutionise the solar industry with their proprietary robot which plays an integral role in the maintenance of solar plants. Skilancer’s innovative waterless automatic solar module cleaning robots are cost-effective, safe, and cloud-based. The digital interface allows for –
- Each robot to be controlled remotely through a PC or mobile interface
- Warnings are directly communicated to the user by each robot
- Each robot gives their running time, water saved, man-hours saved, etc. which is then summed up and displayed
Till date, Skilancer holds three patents to its name and has also won a couple of awards which includes ‘Startup of the Year’ in 2018 by Yeforum, the Energy and Innovation Award by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2019 and Make a Deal which was organised by the Ministry of Qatar.
How are you deploying autonomous cloud-based robots for efficient functioning?
Ans – Our core audience is solar industries, CXOs and government and ecosystem leaders. We are majorly focused on B2B for our retail distribution. We currently have top industry leaders such as TATA, Adani, Shree Cement, Hindustan Petroleum etc as our clients.
Are you using RPA exclusively for the process?
Yes, we are using robotic process automation exclusively for the process
How can your startup idea help with the pandemic?
Around the world, the lockdown measures to contain the pandemic have led to economic contraction and a significant drop in energy consumption including electricity, gas, and oil. CEOs, experts, and policymakers are still taking stock of the impact of COVID-19 on the energy landscape and what it means for the ongoing transition to sustainable energy. In India, the renewable sector, including large hydro, accounted for 15.6 percent of the generation in January, which is a lean season for hydro. Solar, wind, small hydro, biomass i.e officially referred to as Renewable Energy in India ― contributed 9.11 percent, up from 8.55 percent in the same period last year. Renewable energy provides an opportunity for `building back better’ as many people all over the world believe that the coronavirus pandemic is a result of us not being responsible for the environment. Startups like Skilancer Solar which are innovating at the helm of renewable energy revolution can solve for problems of water scarcity, efficient use of energy and low cost robotic cleaning of solar panels which is a big factor in the coming years as in situations like these where manual/traditional forms of cleaning can be a problem for industries. These robots can establish better practices and can be monitored from home/office.
What do you think the future of RPA is like?
With the spread of Covid-19 across the world and lockdown being observed worldwide, many industries have now started to think in new directions. With tech majors like Google, Facebook, and Twitter allowing most of their workforce to work from home as one of the examples. This leads us to wonder how we can manage the work in the absence of manpower which will lead to minimalistic human errors in processes. The best solution is by the introduction of RPA. With many companies working on unmanned vehicles and unmanned aircrafts, the future of RPA looks bright and prospective.