About us
Virya Paramita Energy (VPE) Private Limited is a pioneering renewable wave-energy company in India aiming to help safely and responsibly meet the country’s growing needs for energy by generating electricity from waves. VPE endeavors to bring in an efficient class of indigenous wave energy converters (WECs) to market, enabling cost-effective low and no-carbon solutions to climate change. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is the creed that underpins VPE’s bespoke initiatives in creating a self-reliant and self-generating energy system in India. The company’s initial goal is to harvest 1 GW power from the enormously large wave potential of the Indian coast, diversifying the country's total energy production scenario. VPE is a torch bearer in promoting the use of wave energy sources and will be the beacon in disseminating the ‘Blue Economy’ in India.
History
Access to energy bolsters modern life enabling human
comfort, economic affluence and social development. The opulent life that we
enjoy today comes with a grave penalty of rise in pollution levels and the
rapid depletion of fossil fuels that requires urgent attention to fulfill
increasing energy demands. India being the second most populous nation,
grapples to meet the rising power demands while keeping the greenhouse gasses
and pollution levels in check. While the Indian government is exploring greener
ways like solar and wind to diversify the nation’s power sources, the 7500 km
long Indian coastline with an immense 40 GW wave power is awaiting to be tapped.
Inspired by this massive ocean power, Sai Arun Kiran Karthik, a young aspiring entrepreneur trained in
Australia founded the first private wave energy company in India - the ‘Virya
Paramita Energy (VPE) Private Limited’ in 2020, to foster cutting edge technologies
in the arena of sustainable energy.
Acclaimed for his strategic acumen
gained by years of experience in
introducing new things and leading teams at the International Students level
& Academic Board level (RMIT University) and National Students level (NIT
Srinagar), Sai Karthik rightly collaborated with the finest minds and
experienced scientists working in the field of wave energy from the top
institutes of the nation. One such key personnel is Prof. Abdus Samad, a
faculty member in the Ocean engineering department of the Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras since 2010. He laid the cornerstone of VPE and has been its
driving force since its inception. Prof. Samad has decades of experience
working in sectors of marine energy, optimization of turbomachinery systems,
computational fluid dynamics, tidal turbines, surrogate based optimization,
design and testing of oscillating water column and point absorber type wave
energy converters, hydrodynamic modeling, control optimization of WECs, and
artificial lift. He commenced the Wave Energy and Fluids Engineering Laboratory
(WEFEL) in 2017 to perform tank testing, rapid small scale prototyping and
large commercial scale prototypes of WECs. In 2018, his research group
successfully demonstrated the working of a lab-scale oscillating point absorber
wave energy device with a novel direct-drive power conversion mechanism to
convert wave power into electrical energy which lies as the pivotal technology
for the sea-based desalination system being developed by VPE. Apart from his
diverse portfolio and academic rigor, he also has keen sense of product
innovation growth activities which has aided VPE in attracting funds and
technical assistance from global and national bodies such as the Maritime
Clim Accelerator (A European
Union co-funded), the government of Andhra Pradesh, India and the National
Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT). VPE is also one among the top 20
start-ups to demonstrate their innovative solutions for the transition to sustainability of the maritime
industry in front of a global platform of investors, port authorities and
shipping companies.
Another key mentor of VPE is Prof. Abhijit Chaudhuri, a faculty
member of Fluid Mechanics group in Applied Mechanics department of IIT Madras
since July, 2010. He works on diverse fields of fluid mechanics and application
of CFD to understand fluid structure interaction, scaling and folding of RO
based desalination etc. In the field of wave hydrodynamics he has been working
on tsunami wave interaction with onshore structures, explosive instability due
to nonlinear wave mixing, and designing a wave energy supported desalination
system. He is an active member of IIT Madras wave energy team and brings his
rich experience that helps in building practical desalination systems tailored
based on coastal sites and fits the customer needs. Recently in 2021, the
company signed a Joint Development Agreement with IIT Madras and also incubated
its startup at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. VPE’s dynamic
leadership stands as a testament in redefining the renewable energy industry by
creating value for its customers, partners and employees.
WHAT
WE DO?
Backed by a skilled team and under 10+ years of
experienced leadership, VPE paves way in providing clean energy solutions that
are feasible, cost-effective and innovative. To commence with, the company has embarked upon an
exciting venture on developing a wave-energy based desalination system to
produce fresh water for drinking and sanitation for domestic and
commercial utilization. We mainly focus on producing water for the coastal
population who have less access to safe water for drinking or common household
applications. Presently, the technology for capturing wave energy and utilizing
that for desalination is at a primitive stage. VPE’s technical team will work
on the development of sustainable technology that will serve the dual
objectives of meeting energy demand from renewable sources and ensuring access
to safe water utilizing such energy. The company also plans to introduce warrantied and bankable WECs by
2030, that allows its customers to build wave farms for applications such as
desalination, ocean surveillance, sea navigational system, weather buoy,
offshore communication and UAV/Underwater vehicle charging stations.