Satvasheel Powar
IIT Mandi| IIT Mandi | |
| Mandi, India | |
| Member ID | 5321 |
|---|---|
| Member since | Mar 25, 2026 |
| Status | Active |
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About
Associate Professor & Dean Finance at IIT Mandi | Founder, WattCycle Sustainable Solutions | Researcher in solar photovoltaics, photovoltaic end-of-life management, life cycle assessment, and circular economy. Leading India's first pilot-scale PV recycling initiative, backed by a ₹10 crore CSR grant from GIC Re. Active contributor to MNRE and NSEFI solar circular economy policy dialogue.Details
Dr. Satvasheel Powar is an Associate Professor and Dean of Finance & Accounts at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, India, where he leads the Energy Engineering Laboratory. He is the Founder and Principal Investigator of WattCycle Sustainable Solutions, India's first pilot-scale photovoltaic recycling initiative, supported by a ₹10 crore (approx. €1.1M) CSR grant from the General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re). WattCycle addresses India's rapidly growing end-of-life solar panel waste challenge through advanced materials recovery and circular economy principles.His research spans solar photovoltaics, life cycle assessment, photovoltaic waste management, agrivoltaics, thermal energy storage, and advanced manufacturing. He has authored 53+ peer-reviewed papers in journals including Energy & Environmental Science, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, Applied Energy, Journal of Power Sources, and Journal of Energy Storage, with 2,195+ citations and an h-index of 24. He has co-edited four Springer-Nature volumes on solar energy (Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering series) and holds 13 granted Indian patents, 20 industrial designs, and 33 total granted IP assets.
Dr. Powar holds a PhD in Solar Energy from Monash University, Australia (2013), where he developed p-type dye-sensitized solar cells using NiO photocathodes and novel cobalt electrolytes. His Masters thesis on dye-sensitized solar cells was completed at EPFL, Switzerland (2005) under the group of Prof. Michael Graetzel, the Nobel Prize-adjacent pioneer of DSC technology. He also holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering with specialisation in Solar Energy from Dalarna University, Sweden (2004–2005), and a B.E. in Production Engineering from Shivaji University, India (2003).
His industrial career spans Switzerland (Greatcell Solar, 2005–2007), the UK (G24 Innovations, 2007–2008), Singapore (Nanyang Technological University, 2012–2015), and Sweden (Dalarna University, 2021–2024), bringing an international systems perspective to solar energy and industrial ecology research. He has engaged directly with India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) on regulatory frameworks for solar circular economy, and has contributed as Technical Expert to the Ministry of MSME on green transition and carbon credit mechanisms.
Dr. Powar is a Stanford Ignite Fellow (Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2011), a BASE Fellow (Indo-US Science & Technology Forum), a Lifetime Member of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES Gold), and is empanelled on India's MCA Independent Director Databank. He contributes expert commentary on ESG governance and clean energy to NDTV Profit and has spoken at the TERI World Sustainable Development Summit (2024 and 2026) and the India-AI Impact Summit 2026.
Within ISIE, his primary interest areas align with the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) section and the Industrial Symbiosis section, particularly as they relate to solar manufacturing supply chains, photovoltaic end-of-life material flows, and circular economy transitions in emerging economies.
Contact: satvasheel@iitmandi.ac.in | linkedin.com/in/satvasheel | Scholar: tinyurl.com/satvasheel-scholar
Research Interests
Solar photovoltaics — end-of-life management and circular economyLife cycle assessment (LCA) of photovoltaic systems
Photovoltaic waste characterisation and advanced materials recovery
Agrivoltaics — food-energy-water nexus
Thermal energy storage — phase change materials and latent heat systems
Dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells
Carbon footprint and environmental impact of energy systems
Industrial symbiosis in energy manufacturing supply chains
ESG metrics and sustainability governance in the solar sector
Green hydrogen — thermochemical production cycles
Direct ink writing and additive manufacturing for energy applications