For Govinda Upadhyay, CEO of AI-based predictive analytics firm SmartHelio, a self-proclaimed passion for renewable energy and the potential it offers is more than just a professional interest. Growing up in rural India, he says he didn’t see electricity “for a pretty long time”. This formative experience led him to set up his first company, one dedicated to teaching children in unelectrified villages how to make simple solar lamps to help with their studies.
It was during this time that Upadhyay noticed the rapid growth of large solar plants being installed in India and around the world and, more importantly, that many of them were delivering far less power than expected.