Akshay Makar: Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur helping industries reach net-zero goal

(March 22, 2023) ‘39 of the world’s 50 most polluted cities are in India’ made headlines the day Climatenza Solar founder Akshay Makar sat for an interview with Global Indian. It was exactly such headlines that prompted Akshay to work in the climate and clean energy space. “Whenever you see the newspaper, India always makes it to the top 10 most polluted cities. It is unfortunate but a harsh reality. This triggered me to work in this space and do something for the country,” says the entrepreneur, who in 2018, started Climatenza Solar, a solar thermal startup that helps industries achieve their net-zero energy targets through the use of renewable energy technology, especially solar thermal solutions.

With some roots in Chile, the startup is working with major industrial houses that are looking to scale renewable generation, including Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Rallis. “We are already building a plant for Coca-Cola and Rallis, which will save around 10,000 tonnes of carbon emission from the pilot projects, which is equivalent to around 6000-7000 cars on road,” says Delhi-based climate entrepreneur, whose startup is at the forefront of the fight against climate change.

Akshay Makar is the founder of Climatenza Solar.

The 29-year-old’s efforts have placed him in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia. “We are happy that our work is getting recognised. It will open many doors of opportunities and scale our reach,” he adds.

Clean energy calling!

Born in Delhi, Akshay had always been keen to work in the climate space or robotics during his college days. While studying mechanical engineering at IP University, talk about Solar Photovoltaic (converting sunlight into electrical energy using PV materials and devices) had already begun in India. For someone keen to launch “something of his own” in near future, he learnt the tricks of the trade by working with a startup for a brief period. Things started to shift in 2016 when he attended a social entrepreneurship conference on Sustainable Development Goals and was invited to SDG 7 (clean and affordable energy).

“Seeing my vision and passion, my colleagues encouraged me to go to North Morocco to visit a plant that uses concentrated solar thermal power technology. They have been working on this technology since 1985, primarily to generate power. Even before Solar PV came into existence in India, in the 90s and early 2000s, CSP (concentrated solar power) had already substantially grown – and there were always talks between efficiency, economics, and technology.”

While Solar PV was expensive and CSP was what most people preferred, Akshay argues that it’s not a viable option in a country like India, “where we do not have infinite space to set up solar power concentrators.” Moreover, with the beginning of mass manufacturing by China, Japan, and Germany in 2005, “the cost of Solar PV came down to 1000 percent. Earlier, the cost per watt was ₹10-15 lakh which has now come down to ₹50,000. Soon people started forgetting CSP.”

Akshay Makar made it to Forbes 30 Under 30 list (Photo: Forbes)

Akshay, too, was leaning towards CSP in the beginning but understanding its shortcomings, he switched from power to the industrial sector. “That gave birth to Climatenza Solar, where we started working with the industries and learning about their problems. Today, we are working with MNCs like Coca-Cola, Tata, and Unilever, and our goal is how we can accelerate this industrial decarbonisation to achieve the net zero goals of the industries.”

Helping achieve net zero goal

It was at COP26 that PM Narendra Modi promised to cut down India’s carbon emission to net zero by 2070, and Akshay is happy to play a part in achieving the goal. With the implications of climate crisis becoming real with each passing day, individual investors and businesses are now looking at the environment as a key parameter. “When environment becomes critical for businesses, it helps them focus on reducing the carbon emission. For every industry, be it in India or abroad, the focus is now on expansion, and this will lead to the generation of more operational energy,” says Akshay, adding, “You can either focus on the existing non-renewable energy like fossil fuel which is bound to lead to carbon emissions or you use renewable energy using new technologies which shall provide you the same quality of energy – be it steam or hot water or electricity – but in a clean manner.” Climatenza Solar’s goal is to become sustainability partner of such companies to help them achieve the net zero target by providing solutions that are helping to decarbonize the industrial sector and reduce the global carbon footprint.

Ups and downs

Today, the startup is working with five key industries – food and beverage, dairy, textiles, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, but it was a journey uphill for Akshay. For the first one-and-a-half years, he worked solely on the project before getting a team in place. “Being a hard-tech sector, people trust you only after you have proven yourself. But I am grateful that some early investors and accelerator programs invested in Climatenza at the early stage,” adds the entrepreneur who calls strong commitment towards goals, team, and customers paramount.

Like most businesses, Climatenza Solar too felt the heat during the lockdown as its operations were affected. “We are not a software or a SaaS business that can be run online. It was hard but we take every challenge as an opportunity. We rebuilt in 2021 and started working with Rallis, Coca-Cola, and Unilever in 2022. It’s been a lot of ups and downs, but that’s what entrepreneurship is all about,” he smiles.

Reducing carbon emission, one project at a time

So, what sets Climatenza Solar apart from its competitors? It is the low-cost, efficient technology and design innovation that takes into account the optimisation of space. “The size of our competition is large in terms of area and weight. So, we have developed the technology in a way that our collector is 10 times smaller in size than our closest competition in terms of weight and dimension. So, we can install it on the terrace or ground, especially car parking lots.”

Akshay Makar at Stanford University to meet MBA students.

In just five years, Akshay has been able to create an impact with his startup, and his sole focus is on decarbonising the industrial sector and reducing the global carbon footprint. “As we speak, we are already building a plant for Coca-Cola and Rallis. These are the pilot projects we are developing to witness how these technologies work and an opportunity for us to scale shortly,” says the entrepreneur, who has plans to expand further in Chile soon.

A traveller, who loves to play sports and work out often, Akshay plans to meet 50-70 percent energy demand of industries in the next three-five years. “Because this will help reduce carbon emissions and create jobs in local communities as most of these industries are in remote areas so we aim to provide some good jobs to unskilled labour for a better living. Our goal is to see how this local manufacturing in India creates indirect jobs and impacts the subsequent industries,” he signs off.

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