As others exit, Tata Power bets big on the rooftop solar business

The power utility aims to make the most of its early mover advantage—and the absence of large companies—in India’s struggling rooftop solar business.

Praveer Sinha has set some stiff targets. The Tata Power CEO wants renewable energy to make up 80% of the company’s generation capacity by 2030, going up to 100% by 2045; it’s at 38% right now.

Clearly, he must hustle. Towards that end, Tata Power is relying on large, utility-scale projects—solar and wind farms spread across hectares and feeding power to the electricity grid—to accomplish the shift. Then, to build an entire value chain around renewables, it is putting up a 4 gigawatt solar module manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. But a smaller, albeit key focus of its strategy involves …