Video Interview: In conversation with Jigar Shah on Servitisation 

During the 1 December Cooling as a Service (CaaS) global E-Summit, Daniel Magallón, CEO of BASE interviewed world-renowned entrepreneur Jigar Shah, President/ Co-Founder of Generate Capital and Founder/ CEO of SunEdison on how servitisation is disrupting markets across industries, using the example of photovoltaics and Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).

During the very thought-provoking hour-long interview, Shah shared his experience with the “as-a-service” model as applied to the solar industry, also looking at applying these lessons to the cooling sector. He spoke about the potential he sees in the market today as this model has also shaped PPAs and resulted in the rapid uptake of photovoltaic technology. 

His valuable experience in business model innovation and entrepreneurship gave the audience a deep-dive into the potential of servitisation towards sustainable climate solutions. According to Shah, he sees a clear opportunity in focussing on the market sectors where the end users are in pain facing frequent breakage with outdated equipment, expensive to operate and maintain, and sometimes using harmful refrigerants for the environment, but no CAPEX to finance an upgrade. Here, CaaS will accelerate the adoption of natural refrigerants and energy efficiency equipment, according to Shah. 

Shah spoke very highly of the CaaS Initiative: “I appreciate the wonderful work that you are doing in inspiring and promoting this concept [CaaS] because I think it is critical to accelerating the use of green refrigerants and high energy-efficiency solutions for heating, ventilation and air conditioning,” he said.

During the interview, Shah also shared recommendations to manufacturers, project developers and technology providers for transitioning to an as-a-service model and highlighted gaps in policies and government support in accelerating the adoption of these business models. Amongst a variety of other relevant topics, Shah also touched upon the importance of private banks in providing debt for project financing, as well as the challenge of applying the model in developing countries.

With 1,141 registrations from 82 countries, 50 speakers, and more than 16 hours of content, the 1 December Cooling as a Service (CaaS) E-Summit gave a comprehensive look into the servitization landscape. 

Did you miss the event or would like to re-watch some of the many great sessions that took place during the CaaS E-Summit? The digital platform will stay online as a virtual library for a whole year. Simply log back into the event and watch whichever session you choose. It is also possible to register post-event, so feel free to share the link with your colleagues and/or customers – new participants can use the code “CaaS!” to access the platform.