Singapore-headquartered energy-as-a-service (EaaS) infrastructure platform August Energy has signed its first EaaS contract in India for a 1.5 GW solar module manufacturing facility near Jaipur, Rajasthan, marking its entry into integrated utility services for the country’s rapidly expanding solar manufacturing sector.

Under the agreement, the company will invest approximately ₹80 million (~$883,072) in the facility and provide chilled-water cooling, compressed air, and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) infrastructure under a 10-year contract. The company stated that integrated utilities contracts of this nature typically last 7 to 15 years.

Hitender Singh Grover, Country Head EaaS – Integrated Utilities at August Energy, stated, “August energy has designed and deployed a highly energy efficient EaaS solution that is scalable and manages to deliver sustained energy savings over the asset life cycle of the customer.”

Manufacturing processes are temperature-sensitive and require controlled environments for process cooling, clean room cooling, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. The compressed air system will have a designed capacity of 1,428 cubic feet per minute to support production equipment.

The cooling infrastructure is designed to deliver 480 tons of refrigeration of chilled water capacity to the plant. In large-scale solar module manufacturing facilities with capacities of 1 GW to 2 GW or more, electric chillers are critical to maintaining process stability.

In addition, the project includes the provision of 1,100 kVA UPS capacity to manage power quality and provide backup for critical infrastructure, reducing the risk of production interruptions.

August Energy highlighted operational challenges associated with medium-sized capacities, where highly efficient technologies such as centrifugal chillers and centrifugal compressors may not always be preferred solutions.

The company noted that solar manufacturers, particularly those integrating backward from EPC to manufacturing, require additional operational expertise to manage utilities efficiently.

Rajasthan’s high ambient temperatures pose further efficiency challenges for cooling systems, requiring design considerations that address thermal performance. The project incorporates loop redundancy in the chilled water system and structured preventive maintenance to ensure uninterrupted delivery of utilities.

“In a greenfield project, the customer has a choice between investing capital or adopting an asset-light and off-the-balance-sheet model to optimize capital allocation toward core revenue growth activities,” Grover said.

August Energy will assume operational responsibility, guarantee uptime, and ensure efficiency throughout the asset lifecycle, delivering performance and savings for the manufacturer.

In July 2025, Switzerland-based impact asset manager responsAbility invested $15 million (~₹1.28 billion) in August Energy on behalf of its investors. The funding enabled the company to expand its portfolio of distributed renewable energy projects in India.