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India wakes up to sun-ny days, targets its solar power potential like never before

Of late, there seems to be a sudden rise in hype around the word 'Solar Power' in India. Sometime last week, Kerala (located in the southern part of India) became the proud home to what is being touted as the first airport in the world to operate completely on solar power. Cochin International Airport (in Kerala) now houses a 12 mw solar power plant, capable of generating as much as 21 million units of electricity each year, basis 20% CUF.

Naturally, most newspapers came flushed with stories about India and its new solar power dream, rechristened by the Narendra Modi government. Being an analyst, I couldn’t resist, but douse myself into some of these beautifully written pieces only to understand that India has actually been making a serious progress in its mission to make the maximum use of its sun-ny days.

For the uninitiated, India is currently in the midst of ramping up its solar power generation. In June 2015, the Indian government approved plans to increase the country’s solar power capacity target to a jaw-dropping 100 gw (i.e. 100,000 mw) by 2022. The erstwhile government, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, had set a target of 20 gw of grid connected solar power by 2022.

Considering the establishment costs of recent projects in the industry, an installation of such stature would require an investment of ~ USD100 billion or INR5-6 lac crores.

Most would agree that this is an unreasonable target. However, before we write this off. Read on…

In June 2015, SoftBank announced a partnership with Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn Technology to invest at least USD20 billion in solar energy projects in India. As per a Reuters report, Adani Group is currently in talks with both Softbank and Foxconn to secure investment in a USD3 billion project to make solar cells and panels in the country. Furthermore, SunEdison, OAO Rosneft, Reliance ADAG, NTPC and a few more are on the cusp of announcing hefty solar power investments in India.

Solar power in India has witnessed impressive growth in a short span of time – from just 35 mw as of March 2011 to over 4,000 mw as of now. As per the latest data available on MNRE, the five states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, comprise more than 80% of this entire 4,000+ mw solar power capacity.

While all the above data is easy to come by, one special feature to the readers of blog are the names of top 10 solar power producers in India.

Click here to access the list of all solar power plants in India, by company, state and capacity.

PS – The above data is purely based on secondary research and may differ from actual

Making sense of KidZania business model

I am sure most of us (especially the ones based in Mumbai) have heard about KidZania or may even have visited it at the R City Mall. Well! Few days back I did some interesting piece of analysis about their business and wanted to share the same with fellow readers of my blog.

Did you know that the KidZania Mumbai center with an annual attendance of 700,000 people and an average ticket price of INR1400/- (for children) and INR500/- (for an adult) could be generating annual ticket sales of whopping INR90 crores.

That’s not all!

KidZania Mumbai center also earns money through individual or corporate partners who want to put up their brands in the mock-up city. The center has nearly 40 corporate partners, namely, Amity University, Big Bazaar, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Cadbury’s, Central, Club Mahindra, Coca-Cola, Costa Coffee, DHL, Furtados School of Music, Hardy's, Hyundai, Kellogg's, Mad Over Donuts, Nerolac, Pepperfry, Radio City, Star India, The Times of India, Yes Bank, among others. It is believed that KidZania’s franchise partners’ (in this case ImagiNation Edutainment India Private Limited) generally manage to recover a significant part of their initial project cost from such corporate partners.

Hold on! There is some more. KidZania Mumbai also earns money through sales at the souvenir shop and F&B outlets located inside the center.

KidZania has come a long way from time it opened its first center in Mexico City in 1999. Today, KidZania has grown to nearly 20 centers, mainly through franchise. KidZania is operational in countries like Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK, among others. In India, the second KidZania at New Delhi is currently under construction and expected to open sometime next year.

• Project cost: INR100 - 130 crores 
• Average size: 80,000 sq ft 
• Target audience: 4-14 years children 
• Average ticket price: INR900 - 3000 (for children in India - Japan) and INR500 - 2000 (for adults) 
• Annual attendance: 500,000 to 800,000 people per year (or 1400 to 2200 per day) 

KidZania is an edutainment indoor theme park scaled and built specially for children from 4-14 years. KidZania offers a unique blend of role play in ultra-realistic, kid-sized city environments. Every KidZania center offers a minimum of 80 role-play adult occupations including that of pilots, doctors, healthcare professionals, police officers, reporters, photographers, engineers, fashion model, and artists, among others, in a miniature city that includes a Bank, Hospital, Police Station, Fire Station, Aviation Academy and Theatre.

The concept was developed by Xavier Lopez Ancona, a former GE employee who even had a short stint at Booz Allen and Hamilton.

Well! KidZania business sounds great, doesn’t it?

PS – The above data is purely based on secondary research and may differ from actual