A Home Truly Of His Own

71-year-old D Suresh has built a selfsufficient house that takes care of all his food, gas and electricity needs.

- Binjal Shah

For his meals, he plucks vegetables and herbs from his own garden. For his consumption of power, he uses electricity produced from his own solar system. For cooking purposes, he uses a stove that runs on his own biogas plant. And there’s much more in Chennai-based D Suresh’s home that makes it so very self sufficient. At 71, Suresh, who lives with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, believes that in today’s world of rapidly diminishing natural resources, it is important to “find our own solutions rather than depend on the government for everything.” After a career spanning 45 years, Suresh retired in 2015 and has since then invested his time and effort at making his home a unique model, thereby earning him the nickname of ‘Solar Suresh’.

An IIT-Madras and IIM-A graduate, he worked in textiles’ marketing in various capacities, including MD and CEO, for many years before taking an entrepreneurial plunge to establish SAKS Ancillaries Ltd. He then spearheaded another entrepreneurial venture in the last-mile connectivity space. While it is difficult for him to determine exactly when he got the idea to build a “self sufficient home”, he says that the seed was planted during his travels to Germany back in his manufacturing days about 20 years ago. “I witnessed many rooftop solar plants in Germany during my visits. And if a country with a lot less sunshine can install them, why not in India, which has solar energy in abundance?” he recounts. That catapulted him into prodding further and finding a vendor to install a rooftop solar plant for generating electricity.