Sahaj Solar plans 1.8 GWh BESS plant in 12 months

Sahaj Solar Limited plans to commission a 1.8 gigawatt-hour battery energy storage system plant at Dakor, Gujarat, within 12 months, supported by Rs 25 crore of plant-and-machinery investment. Sahaj Solar said the facility will broaden its offering from solar systems into solar-plus-storage, standalone battery energy storage systems and hybrid solutions.

What is Sahaj Solar building in Gujarat?

Sahaj Solar is establishing a 1.8 gigawatt-hour, or GWh, battery energy storage system, or BESS, manufacturing facility at Dakor in Gujarat. Management said on the November 5, 2026 earnings call that the company had approved the BESS expansion and expected the plant to be commissioned within 12 months.

The project marks a manufacturing addition to Sahaj Solar's solar-focused operations, rather than an announced customer order. Management said it sees solar combined with BESS as the next step for the business, but it did not disclose a technology supplier, a customer commitment or a production schedule beyond the 12-month commissioning target.

How much will Sahaj Solar invest in the BESS plant?

Sahaj Solar plans to invest Rs 25 crore in plant and machinery for the 1.8 GWh BESS facility. In response to an analyst's reference to an approximately Rs 44 crore FY27 capital-expenditure plan, management said Rs 25 crore was for BESS machinery and was expected to be spent over the following six months.

The disclosed machinery outlay is separate from an approved further investment of up to Rs 25 lakh in wholly owned Mauritius subsidiary Sahaj Energies Limited. That smaller amount is intended for working capital for a solar engineering, procurement and construction, or EPC, contract, while the Rs 25 crore allocation relates to manufacturing equipment at Dakor.

Which BESS customers and applications will Sahaj Solar pursue?

Sahaj Solar intends to sell BESS products to existing solar customers and pursue standalone storage and hybrid-system requirements. Management identified residential, industrial and commercial customers, as well as uninterruptible power supply, or UPS, and data-centre applications, as areas for solar-plus-BESS solutions.

The company expects BESS to change its revenue mix from pure solar toward combined solar and storage sales. Management said manufacturing would start with moderate growth and 50% to 60% operational capability in its first year, but did not provide a BESS revenue target, expected selling price or volume forecast.

Sahaj Solar already has exposure to storage-linked work in its approximately Rs 300 crore order book as of September 2026. Management said about Rs 100 crore related to solar water-pumping systems and Rs 35 crore to Rs 40 crore to off-grid BESS projects, with the remaining orders spanning solar and solar-plus-BESS projects.

What margin impact does Sahaj Solar expect from BESS manufacturing?

Management anticipates that margins could increase by 3% to 5% after the BESS manufacturing facility normalises. The comment was management's expectation in response to an investor question, and the call did not specify the precise profitability measure or time period to which the expected increase applies.

Sahaj Solar reported an 18.1% gross margin in H1 FY27 and said gross margins on existing projects had broadly remained in a 17% to 18% range. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or EBITDA, margin was 9.62% in H1 FY27, compared with 9.98% in H1 FY26, while finance cost was Rs 7.8 crore.

How does Sahaj Solar's balance sheet affect the expansion?

Sahaj Solar reported Rs 73.8 crore of operating cash flow in H1 FY27 after reducing trade receivables by Rs 92.4 crore. It used cash flow to repay borrowings, with gross debt falling by about Rs 59 crore to Rs 116.5 crore and cash balances rising to Rs 19.2 crore from Rs 10.4 crore at March 31, 2026.

The debt-to-equity ratio was 0.82x at September 30, 2026, versus 1.27x at March 2026, according to management. Profit after tax declined to Rs 4.30 crore from Rs 5.10 crore a year earlier because of higher finance costs, and management said lower debt should reduce that burden in the second half.

Management separately said working-capital borrowings were Rs 60 crore as of the November 5 call, down from Rs 70 crore at September 30. It expects the borrowing to be completed by June 30, or earlier if cash flow improves, though it did not state how the BESS machinery investment would be funded.

When could the BESS plant add to Sahaj Solar revenue?

Sahaj Solar expects the BESS operation to run at 50% to 60% operational capability in its first year after the planned 12-month commissioning. Management said this would add BESS revenue alongside solar revenue, but did not disclose when commercial production would begin or quantify first-year storage sales.

The company expects its existing orders to be concluded by March 31, 2027. Management also said the second half historically produces the larger share of annual revenue and expects H2 FY27 turnover to be two to three times H1 turnover, against H1 FY27 revenue of Rs 158 crore.

Management further said it expects Sahaj Solar to sustain growth of more than 35% to 40% as solar-plus-BESS offerings develop. That is a management expectation rather than a formal financial forecast, and it depends on plant commissioning, operating ramp-up and order conversion.

Conclusion

The Dakor facility is Sahaj Solar's planned entry into BESS manufacturing, with 1.8 GWh of proposed capacity and Rs 25 crore allocated to machinery. The project would allow the company to combine storage with solar offerings while also targeting standalone BESS and hybrid requirements across residential, commercial, industrial, UPS and data-centre uses.

The next disclosed milestones are the planned Rs 25 crore machinery spend over six months, commissioning within 12 months and first-year operations at 50% to 60% capability. Investors can also watch execution of the approximately Rs 300 crore order book by March 31, 2027, progress on working-capital debt by June 30, and any future disclosure on BESS customers, production or revenue.