The Houses Were Free. The Last Mile Was Not: Su-Kam’s 10,000-Home Tamil Nadu Green House Project

1. What the Facebook Graphic Said (15 April 2014)

The Su-Kam Solar post — still on our Facebook archive — carried a full company graphic. Headline: “Su-Kam installs solar power systems in over 10000 houses across 7 districts in Tamil Nadu under the 'CM's Green House program'.”

• Seven districts completed (named on the card): Ariyalur, Cuddalore, Perambalur, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam.
• TEDA: Installations under the Chief Minister’s Green House programme launched by the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency.
• Near-term add-on claimed on the card: about 2,500 further solar installations under that phase by April 2014.
• State scheme frame: Government of Tamil Nadu’s Solar Powered Green House Scheme aimed at constructing 3 lakh houses with solar-powered lighting over five years (2011–12 to 2015–16) for the rural poor.
• Next-phase assignment on the card (not completed by us): commissioning solar in 27,700 additional houses in Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Tiruppur, Dindigul, Madurai and Sivagangai.
• This is not the 2007 TEDA PCU origin. That earlier product meeting is The Solar PCU origin story. Green House is the later housing scheme.

May 2014 press (The Hindu, TOI) repeated the same arc — 10,000 done, more promised. As CEO & MD I want the record straight: we executed the first ~10,000. Once the work showed losses, we did not take the 27,700 path further. The Facebook graphic and the wires were contemporaneous ambition; the balance sheet decided the stop.

2. The Founder’s Story: A Big Entry — and a Hard Stop

By Kunwer Sachdev (Founder & Managing Director, 1988–2018)

Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa thought of this project for people living below the poverty line. The state would build the house. Solar lighting would go on the roof. On paper it was nation-building. On the ground, in 2013–2014, it was the hardest last-mile work we had taken in the south.

This was a big entry for us in Tamil Nadu — not a dealer demo, a government housing programme spread across many small towns and villages. The spread was very high. Getting people for installation was tough. There was no ready local solar labour bench. We trained local people for the work, house by house.

Remember the timing. This was before the Modi government’s later national focus on solar. Under my leadership as CEO & MD, Su-Kam was already promoting solar in a big way by working with state governments like Tamil Nadu’s Green House / TEDA programme — and by developing the solar products ourselves. That product depth is also why we could keep pricing under control: in those years there was hardly any import of electronics and batteries; solar panels were the main thing coming from outside. The rest of the stack we could engineer and source on terms that still made a state-scale housing scheme commercially thinkable — even when the last mile later proved it was not our cup of tea.

CM Jayalalithaa called — then we proved it at her residence

The scheme sat under Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. For her it was a prestigious project — rural poor housed with solar lighting under the Chief Minister’s name — and she wanted it done by a reputed company, installed properly, and maintained well. She also wanted it functional on timeline. That same year she personally called me, and I met her. She asked about the technology. Before we were trusted at programme scale, we installed a ~20 kW solar storage system at her residence first — to prove our credentials on a system she could see working. Only after that kind of confidence did the Green House field work make sense as a Su-Kam commitment under my leadership as CEO & MD.

The houses themselves were provided by the government. Certain houses were not ready. We had to wait for construction to finish, and then for families to actually shift in, before a solar kit could be commissioned and handed over. A factory can plan a production week. It cannot plan when a rural house gets a door, a roof, and a family.

Five years of water

The warranty was five years. The battery was lead-acid. Water topping was required after about six months — and we had to maintain that discipline for five years across a geography of small towns. That is not a product sale. That is a service company living inside a housing scheme.

Logistics, leakage, and a revolving door

Travelling Tamil Nadu’s small cities for this work was really tough for me. We had a manager in Tamil Nadu who was always changing. People got the experience and left — it was easy for them to get the next job. On top of that there was pilferage from our own staff during logistics. I will not name anyone. It was a big pain, and it sat on my desk.

In May 2014 the newspapers repeated a company line about further thousands of houses. We did only the first ten thousand. Once we realised the work was loss-making, we did not take that path further. Stopping was the decision. The press announcement was not the balance sheet.

3. Ground Reality

4. Verified Contemporaneous Media & Official Records

• The Hindu (2 May 2014): Su-Kam installs solar power system in TN houses
• Times of India (4 May 2014): 10,000 households in Tamil Nadu
• Business Standard (1 May 2014): Su-Kam to invest Rs 60 cr in rooftop solar systems — treat spend and “next phase” counts as contemporaneous claims, not our completion record.
• IT Voice (4 May 2014): Su-Kam powers over 10,000 houses in Tamil Nadu
• NCN (1 May 2014): Su-Kam installs solar power systems in Tamil Nadu
• Official scheme: TN RD — Chief Minister Solar Powered Green House Scheme
• Founder essays: 10 Stories From the Field · Solar Affordable for India · Green Energy for Every Indian

5. Series Connections & Founder Essays

• KunwerSachdev.com — field essay (same 10,000 homes): Su-Kam Solar Projects: 10 Stories From the Field
• KunwerSachdev.com — affordability / TN mention: How Kunwer Sachdev Made Solar Affordable for India
• KunwerSachdev.com — mission / state schemes: Green Energy for Every Indian
• Hub: All solar blogs
• Earlier Tamil Nadu chapter: 2007 TEDA Solar PCU origin — product, not this housing scheme.
• Episode 1: 40,000 UP homes — Direct-DC
• Episode 2: Assam Rifles 100 kW, Myanmar border
• Facebook archive card: April 2014 Green House post

Historical Documentation Notice:
This article documents historical work under Kunwer Sachdev as Founder & Managing Director of Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd. (1988–2018). He exited in 2019 under the IBC process and holds no association, affiliation, or liability with Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd. or its subsequent management.