The Sun shines bright on solar module manufacturing

Highlighting the potential opportunities for solar module manufacturing industry in India.

Solar market in India has shown a manifold growth in the past 3 years mainly because of massive push given by central as well as state governments. Today India is leading the world by going for mega scale solar project deployments which not only help us in reducing our country’s dependency on fossil fuels, but also commit to a cleaner and healthier world to live in.

Giving an overview on solar module manufacturing in India, Ashish Joshi, Director, Addin Power Ltd explains, “As I looked a few years back there is drastic change in manufacturing of solar PV module in terms of technology and rates as well. Today, in India, there is installed domestic module manufacturing capacity of more than 4,000 MW. Considering the positive sentiment for setting up module manufacturing units in India, we believe that around 750 MW of module capacity will be added in 2017-18.”

Addin Power is collaborating with global consulting firms to advise multinational manufacturers to enter the Indian solar market. On another project, the company is involved in the acquisition of existing solar assets, informs Joshi.

According to Sitapathy Chavali, Managing Director, Greenrays Enersol Pvt Ltd, “Currently most large-scale solar deployments are aggressively driven by government through auctions and reverse bids, which resulted in achieving grid parity as solar tariffs continue to go further south. With government setting the pace, private and industrial sector has also started rollout of solar plants in large scale to generate captive power for their own consumption.”

India is a country with tremendous solar potential. To harness the same and foster the industry, the government has offered lucrative subsidies for the power generation equipment. As per a latest report from MNRE as of June last year a whopping 5,848 MW has been installed in terms of solar cell capacities across nationwide projects. “Solar module prices are expected to continue declining in 2017 as global supply continues to exceed demand,” observes Krishnan Rajagopalan, Head Solar Business, Anchor Electricals.

Chinese domination continues
While China caters to still more than 85 per cent of solar module requirements in India, manufacturing in India has started in a big way in last 3 years and will definitely see a further boost with increase in demand for modules. However, Chavali points out, “Indigenous manufacturers have a long way to go on maintaining quality and performance of modules, in addition to being price competitive with reference to imported suppliers. I feel this will happen only as volumes picking up for indigenous players.”

Acknowledging China’s domination in the global solar module manufacturing sector, Rajagopalan said, “As the largest supplier and installer of solar module, China will continue to drive global pricing. The country’s demand is expected to be up to 20 per cent lower than in 2016 – as against a record 34 GW of installations in 2016, it is expected to add only about 28 GW in 2017 – putting downward pressure on prices as per a recent report.”
Solar Module Experts
Greenrays Enersol started 5 years back with a vision to provide end-to-end quality EPC services to all segments of solar business. “While EPC market has seen a surge of players entering in last 2 years, eventually companies having focus on quality of implementation and a positive attitude of ‘deliver to customer what you commit’ will survive and grow,” Chavali said.

Addin Power is a company made up of highly skilled specialists in the fields of engineering, roofing, and electrical. The company has dedicated experts working as a team to design, install, monitor, and maintain the solar projects.

Panasonic’s Solar Cell development originally began in 1975 with the erstwhile Sanyo now a fully owned Panasonic Group Company. “In 2013 and 2014 new lab records of solar cell efficiency were created with 25.6 per cent efficiency to make HIT cell the most efficient solar cell across the globe,” claims Rajagopalan.

HIT is a Panasonic patented technology that is now introduced to India through Anchor Electricals. In a short span of just under two years more than 20 MW of HIT Solar PV Modules have been installed across solar projects in the country.