Flexi workspace cos expand solar capacity

Large and listed managed workspace providers are scaling up their green energy efforts by launching their own solar farms in addition to installing rooftop solar panels nationwide.

IndiQube has more than 30 megawatt of operational solar capacity and is targeting nearly 30 MW of additional capacity in this financial year, while Table Space has invested in captive solar capacity of about 3.8 MWp across Karnataka and Maharashtra.

WeWork India plans to develop a 10 MWp (DC) ground-mounted solar power plant in Karnataka, part of its goal to transition towards 100% renewable electricity by March 2028.

“Our near-term ambition is to transition the IndiQube portfolio to 100% green power, with renewable capacity growing alongside our workplace footprint. We see solar investment and green building transformation as complementary: improve how efficiently a building operates while changing the source of the energy it consumes,” said Rishi Das, co-founder and CEO of IndiQube.

Managed space platforms have a natural advantage, as they can aggregate energy demand across both centres and customers. This creates the necessary scale to move from individual rooftop installations to larger solar farms, making green power accessible to enterprises without the need for each one to build its own infrastructure.

“A majority of our centres are located in leased buildings, and rooftop solar alone cannot meet the power requirements of a large office campus,” said Table Space president and co-CEO Kumal Mehra. “Our recent investment in captive solar is structured to create additionality in the market. Under this model, we take an equity stake in an off-site solar project and receive its power through open access. Where roof space permits, we supplement this with on-site solar, and we also use renewable energy certificates.”

As of March 31, Table Space’s portfolio spans 11.46 million sq ft across 176 facilities and 84 centres in nine cities, and many of its enterprise clients have made their own net-zero commitments. They increasingly expect the workspaces they occupy to be powered by clean energy.

The WeWork India plant is targeted for commissioning in this financial year and is expected to generate about 15-16 million units of clean electricity annually. Once operational, it is expected to increase the share of renewable electricity across the company’s portfolio to about 50% from nearly 40% at present.

Nearly 80% of the plant’s output will support WeWork India’s operations, including 10 centres in Bengaluru. The remaining 20% of the plant’s output will be used for its future growth.

“Bengaluru is our largest market, making it the natural starting point for an investment of this scale. As we grow, we want a greater share of that growth to be powered by clean energy, but we also want sustainability to make strong business sense,” WeWork India managing director and CEO Karan Virwani said earlier. “Building our own renewable generation capacity allows us to do both - reduce the carbon footprint of our operations while creating greater certainty over energy costs for the next 25 years.”

IndiQube’s operational footprint includes solar farms in Karnataka and Maharashtra, alongside more than 25 rooftop installations across the country. An upcoming solar farm in Tamil Nadu will extend this footprint further. “Our next step is to take the same thinking from managed spaces into ‘managed green power’. What began as solving our own requirement has become an opportunity to help other enterprises make the same transition,” Das said.

Table Space, in partnership with Clean Max and AMPYR Energy, is expected to deliver more than 5 million units of renewable energy annually and avoid about 3,500 tonnes of emissions each year.

“These long-term investments can help us have greater predictability in energy costs and are expected to double the share of renewable energy in Table Space’s energy mix. These initiatives support our net-zero commitment and our commitment to set science-based targets through the Science Based Targets initiative,” said Mehra.