#251 How to Fix a Quarter Trillion Solar Assets at Scale | Nikhil Vadhavkar (Raptor Maps)

In this episode, we sit down with Nikhil Vadhavkar, co-founder and CEO of Raptor Maps, to uncover how the company is tackling the invisible crisis in clean energy: operational inefficiency across $250B+ worth of solar assets.

Nikhil explains why the solar industry’s problems aren’t just about building more — they’re about getting the existing infrastructure to perform. From labor shortages to rising insurance costs, from underperforming fields to unscalable maintenance methods, Raptor Maps is turning traditional solar operations on its head. 

Their secret? A software platform built on digital twins, computer vision, and robotics that lets field techs do more of what matters.

You'll hear how Raptor Maps found product-market fit by replacing the most dangerous and manual tasks on solar farms with drone- and robot-driven workflows, and how that foundation has evolved into an AI-ready platform used across tens of gigawatts of global deployments. Nikhil shares the journey from MIT and NASA to Y Combinator and utility-scale solar, reflecting on what it means to build something technically excellent, deeply customer-embedded, and truly scalable.

We cover:

• How climate-driven damage (hail, fire) and tariffs are reshaping solar economics
• Why investors are demanding deeper visibility into solar asset performance
• What it takes to operate robots and AI in the middle of nowhere
• And how Raptor Maps built a customer-led culture — even as it scaled

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📝 Show Notes:

Topics 

• 02:51 Shifting Value Toward Operational Assets
• 03:02 Core Challenges in Solar
• 06:26 The Insights Behind Raptor Maps
• 11:06 From Doing a PhD to Raptor Maps 
• 20:31 Creating Scalable Solutions
• 24:44 Shifts in the Ecosystem and Market Positioning
• 31:45 Building Trust Through Industry Collaboration
• 40:36 Looking Ahead

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