Powering the Future: Leadership in Renewable Energy Transition
Caption: Pinaki Bhattacharyya MBA ’03, founder, managing director, and CEO of AMPIN Energy Transition. Photo credit: Pinaki Bhattacharyya
Powering the renewable energy transition in one of the world’s top energy transition markets, Pinaki Bhattacharyya MBA ’03 has focused his career on reducing carbon emissions with innovation, equity, and sustainability at the core of global progress. As a graduate of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Bhattacharyya is one of 20 notable alumni being honored in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise (CSGE) at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
Bhattacharyya is the founder, managing director, and CEO of AMPIN Energy Transition, a renewable energy company in India. The company’s renewable energy portfolio provides peak output of 5 gigawatts in 22 states in India; it also has strategic investments in green hydrogen generation, energy storage, and the manufacturing of solar cells and modules. It has raised over $700 million in equity from international investors including LGT Lightrock, Sumitomo, Siemens, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and created a $4 billion portfolio. Prior to AMPIN, Bhattacharyya was a founding member of independent Indian power producer Sembcorp Green Infra and worked for the US renewable energy project equity fund New Energy Capital and InterGen, a Shell and Bechtel venture. He started his career with GE Vernova, formerly Alstom Power. With over 25 years of experience in the renewable energy sector, he is actively involved as a policy advocate.
Influential to his decision to pursue a career in sustainability and the renewable energy sector was his experience at Cornell. Reflecting on his 20 for 20 nomination, Bhattacharyya said, “This award motivates me to further contribute to continue pushing boundaries, contributing to the shift towards a more sustainable world and inspiring the next generation of leaders in the field.”
Learn more about Bhattacharyya in this Q&A.
Why sustainability?
Q. What drives your commitment to environmental and social impact? What impact do you want to have in this world?
Bhattacharyya: My commitment to environmental and social impact is driven by a deep belief in the transformative power of renewable energy to reshape industries, communities, and the planet. Growing up, I developed an interest in the power sector largely because my father was a power professional. The exposure I had at home sparked my passion and motivated me to pursue a career in this field. While I gained experience working across various countries and continents, I always felt a strong desire to return and contribute to India’s growth and development.
This personal connection, as well as witnessing the tangible benefits of clean energy including reduced emissions, sustainable economic growth, and improved quality of life for underserved populations, fuels my focus. I want to catalyze a shift towards a future where energy is accessible, affordable, and environmentally responsible, enabling businesses and communities to thrive sustainably. The amazing thing is that AMPIN has created nearly 100 renewable energy plants across the country that can have a social impact on hundreds of villages and thousands of people across the country while powering the industries with affordable renewable energy and creating a huge environmental impact—and all this while providing great returns to investors. The impact I strive for is not just reducing carbon footprints, but fostering a mindset where innovation, equity, and sustainability are at the core of global progress.
Q. Describe a project or initiative related to sustainability that you are particularly proud of and how it has influenced your role, company, industry, or community.
Bhattacharyya: While AMPIN Energy Transition is still growing as a company, we were aiming to become a leader in providing comprehensive solutions for transitioning companies to renewable energy to attract some of the world’s leading private equity funds, but we had not yet demonstrated the capability to create technically complex, large projects. One such challenge was to create the largest floating solar project in India (140 megawatts) and one of the largest in the world. We eventually won the bid, competing against tough rivals to supply solar power to the state over 25 years—a contract that the chief minister personally awarded to us.
The project had a huge positive environmental impact, such as saving enough drinking water that could supply half of the capital city’s annual water needs. However, convincing our joint venture partners from Denmark was difficult. We chose a very unconventional path to execute the project with an Indian supplier of floats rather than the more established French suppliers. Despite all odds, we completed the project ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, two other large hydro companies using more traditional methods were delayed. Though we may not have generated the highest returns, we created a huge market opportunity that could tap water bodies to generate solar energy. The project was inaugurated by the prime minister of India.
Navigating skepticism in the industry
Q. Describe the biggest challenge you encountered as you built your career in sustainability and how you overcame it.
Bhattacharyya: The biggest challenge I encountered while building my career in sustainability was navigating the early skepticism around renewable energy, especially in regions where conventional energy sources dominated. Convincing stakeholders—from investors to policymakers—that clean energy solutions were not just viable, but essential required persistent effort and a long-term vision. Many were reluctant to embrace change, either due to financial concerns or an underestimation of the potential impact. I overcame this by focusing on tangible results and by actually delivering projects that demonstrated both environmental and economic benefits. I built a Pan-India industrial footprint, multi-technology solutions, and a unique four-step business model to power 100-percent renewable energy transition while saving electricity costs. This programmatic approach created strong partnerships and showcased successful case studies that proved that renewable energy could reduce costs, enhance energy security, and foster sustainable growth. By proving that sustainability and profitability can coexist, I was able to gradually shift perspectives and help pave the way for broader acceptance and adoption of clean energy solutions.
Q. Can you share any insights or lessons learned from your experiences that may inspire current students who want to be sustainability leaders?
Bhattacharyya: Once a goal is decided on in the field of sustainability, we should then concentrate on the economics, scalability of the solution, and execution. Many people get lost in the romanticism of the field, but only an economically viable model that delivers commercial value to the customers and returns to the investors can scale.
There are four key principles I prioritized when creating my business. First is centering the business around the customer and a sustainable and scalable business model. While this approach is slow, it is methodical, and once it is done in a stable market, it creates a huge moat against competition. Second is a financial strategy that creates a risk-return arbitrage and is able to attract a diverse set of investors with different risk appetites, investment horizons, and focus areas. These investors should also be from different parts of the world to mitigate geopolitical risks. Third, the organizational strategy should be centered around decentralization, synchronization, and strong process orientation. In this leg, the values that drive people play a crucial role in deeper inspiration, self-belief, teamwork, and attitude. Finally, as one may say, “Keep the child within you alive.” It’s the ego that limits your journey towards discovering your true self.
Progress is achieved through collective effort, and the field of sustainability requires input from various stakeholders—governments, businesses, and communities. Building strong networks and constantly engaging with stakeholders can amplify your impact multifold and foster innovative solutions.
The rise of green molecules and energy transition
Q. How do you stay informed about emerging trends and best practices in sustainability, and how do you incorporate these into your work?
Bhattacharyya: The renewable energy sector is highly dynamic and constantly evolving. I stay up to date on emerging trends and best practices by networking, participating, and leading some of the advocacy groups. We discuss market updates every Monday and then continue our pursuit of providing a complete renewable energy transition to our customers. When working to do so, we begin with the end in mind and then work to fill in the gaps in our solutions. I believe in practice and theory going together, so we have a deep cross-functional synchronization meeting involving a large part of the company, which helps us to continuously improve.
Q. Envision the future of sustainability in your industry. What trend excites you and gives you hope for the future
Bhattacharyya: The biggest trend that excites me is that commercially viable, dispatchable green power has become a reality. This development will drive a complete energy transition. Ultimately, this means that the cost of solar, wind, and storage have dropped enough to signal the end of using cheaper polluting sources like coal. Another trend that excites me is the lowering costs of green hydrogen, which is on a path to eventually become cheaper than gray hydrogen [the most common form, generated from natural gas]. This is another step towards making green molecules a reality. Together, both of these emerging trends will transform the world’s energy supply in the coming decades, and I feel blessed to be playing a key role in powering this transition in a significant way through our company as well.
Advancing sustainability with education
Q. What role do you see business schools and universities playing in advancing sustainability initiatives, and how can alumni contribute to this effort?
Bhattacharyya: Sustainability initiatives span all sectors, and in my case, one of the cofounders was also from Cornell, and that was a great starting point. Specifically, Cornell can organize sustainability conferences, bringing together alumni from various sectors. This could include providers of sustainability solutions like us or alumni from other sectors such as data, pharmacy, auto, education, heavy industry, etc., and intermediaries—banking, consulting—as well as policy makers. Such events can be organized in each of the major markets. Another idea is industry tours. We could assist in organizing one across the sustainability value chain in India. Such types of initiatives help the students become more business-ready.
Q. What are the most valuable things you learned at Cornell that have helped you in your career? What Cornell faculty members influenced you on your chosen career path?
Bhattacharyya: The Cornell years gave me the ability to choose my focus area of energy transition against all odds during post-9/11 and the Enron collapse. During that time, I led two clubs, the Energy Club that I started and the South Asian Business Club. Cornell also helped me develop leadership qualities and instilled the motto of “hit the ground running” and “get out of your comfort zone,” which were the taglines in those days in the Cornell Johnson admission brochure. These not only helped me get to college in those cold days in Ithaca, but developed a certain relentless attitude based on practicality to pursue something new. The alumni network was useful in finding my bearings in a new country and getting to do what I wanted to do. This fostered a “never give up” attitude. The career office was very helpful, particularly Laurie Sedgwick, and some of the professors like Jan Suwinski and Zach Shulman played important roles in cultivating my interest in operations and entrepreneurship. In later years, after I graduated, the work of Professor Stuart Hart also inspired me to pursue a career in sustainability.
Career advice
Q. What do you do to recharge?
Bhattacharyya: I recharge with my work because it is perfectly aligned with my passion. Work can be liberating if it is done with the right frame of reference and not being attached to the results. It is focused on perfection in the process rather than fixated on results. The secret is to take things lightly with humor and work intensely in cycles and not carry any baggage. Outside of work, I like watching movies, trekking, reading, and practicing practical spirituality. Spiritual knowledge provides a perspective that is deep and liberates oneself from the ups and downs of both career and life.