Prof. Chetan Singh Solanki
Founder of Energy Swaraj Foundation
Brand Ambassador of Solar Energy for Madhya Pradesh
Prof. Chetan Singh Solanki is an educator, researcher, innovator and happiness program teacher of
Art of Living, who is currently on unpaid leave from
IIT Bombay. He has undertaken ,Energy Swaraj Yatra from Nov. 2020 through a solar bus for 11 years, until 2030. In this yatra, Prof. Solanki has
pledged not to go home until 11 years and stay in the
solar yatra bus. In the wake of serious and
catastrophic climate change, this Energy Swaraj
Yatra is designed with the purpose to create a public movement towards adoption of 100% solar energy.
He has been honored with the Brand Ambassador
of Solar Energy of Madhya Pradesh Government.
Prof. Solanki has also been referred to as “Solar Man of India” by Times of India, The Hindu
and India Today. Some people also call him “Solar Gandhi.” Following Gandhian ideals, he has
coined the word ‘Energy Swaraj’ and to establish Energy Swaraj globally he has founded the
Energy Swaraj Foundation (ESF).
Prof. Solanki has led major solar projects at IIT Bombay. Through his SoULS project he has
reached 7.5 million families providing them clean light. There are several awards to his credit,
these awards includes IEEE’s global grand prize of US100,000$, Prime Minister’s innovation
award for SoULS project, first prize in Solar Chulha Design Challenge by ONGC, three Guinness
World Record, two Young Scientist awards, CSIR Science and Technology award, Excellence in
RE Skilling, “Outstanding Green Activist” and many more.
He is the Chairman of the committee of CBSE and AICTE for solar curriculum development and
member of National Focus Group on Environmental Education. He is also the advisor to a couple
of international organizations. Prof. Solanki has written 8 books and published over 100 research papers internationally. He has 4 US patents to his credit.
During 2019 Prof. Solanki traveled across the world covering 30 countries to spread the message of solar energy. In his ongoing Energy Swaraj Yatra he has already traveled more than 28000 kms reaching about 1 lakh 30 thousand people across 17 Indian states. The 11 years yatra is expected to cover travel across the country 4-5 times. The yatra aims to bring energy literacy to over 100 crore and encourage over 1 crore families to switch 100% on solar energy.
Prof. Solanki has described in his book “Energy Swaraj – my Experiments with SOLAR Truth” that adoption of Energy Swaraj or energy independence should become a public movement. His Energy Swaraj Yatra is sowing the seeds for this movement so that we all can create a better and beautiful world.
