Aggregating Demand for Corporate Rooftop Solar Installations: Lessons from the Collaborative Solar PV Procurement Project

This working paper describes the CollabSolar project, a 2014 pilot initiative by WRI India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to aggregate rooftop solar demand among six corporate buyers in Bengaluru. The project aimed to reduce transaction costs and achieve economies of scale to make rooftop solar more attractive to developers and financiers.

• The CollabSolar project found that the aggregation model is most effective when companies are located within a small geographic area, such as a business or industrial park. To prevent project failure if a single buyer withdraws, the project suggests aggregating a group with a collective minimum renewable energy demand of 8-10 million kWh/year, which equates to a project size of approximately 5-6 MW.
• The creditworthiness of buyers, particularly large companies consuming at least 1 million kWh per annum, can act as anchor buyers to mitigate financial risks for developers and lower financing costs.
• Procurement models should be aligned with buyer preferences based on their grid tariffs. Commercial buyers with higher grid tariffs preferred Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to reduce bills, while industrial buyers with lower tariffs preferred direct investment to utilize capital tax benefits.
• The absence of net-metering schemes in Bengaluru at the time of the pilot forced systems to be sized to the minimum load (using typical weekend demand as a reference) to avoid paying for excess generation, which resulted in smaller transaction sizes.
• Operational barriers identified include security concerns regarding the disclosure of rooftop data, the need for tripartite agreements between buyers, vendors, and landlords for leased spaces, and the requirement for Multi-National Companies (MNCs) to change their corporate charters if they wish to invest their own capital in power generation.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Aggregating Demand for Corporate Rooftop Solar Installations: Lessons from the Collaborative Solar PV Procurement Project. https://www.wri.org/research/aggregating-demand-corporate-rooftop-solar-installations-lessons-collaborative-solar-pv

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Aggregating Demand for Corporate Rooftop Solar Installations: Lessons from the Collaborative Solar PV Procurement Project. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/aggregating-demand-corporate-rooftop-solar-installations-lessons-collaborative-solar-pv.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Aggregating Demand for Corporate Rooftop Solar Installations: Lessons from the Collaborative Solar PV Procurement Project |url=https://www.wri.org/research/aggregating-demand-corporate-rooftop-solar-installations-lessons-collaborative-solar-pv |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendaggregating, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Aggregating Demand for Corporate Rooftop Solar Installations: Lessons from the Collaborative Solar PV Procurement Project}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/aggregating-demand-corporate-rooftop-solar-installations-lessons-collaborative-solar-pv}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }