Integrated solar solutions on one platform

In an interview with EPR Magazine, Amit Barve, BU Head-Solar Business, Panasonic Life Solutions India Pvt Ltd, shares his thoughts on the Indian solar energy market and the company’s future plans for the market.

How do you look at the recovery in the solar power after the Covid-induced lockdown impacting the market last year? 

Solar was being treated as an essential service, there were no limitations from the government agencies to continue working on the solar projects during the Covid-induced lockdown. But, due to the lack of availability of skilled and unskilled workers, many large projects couldn’t complete the execution on time and suffered delays. Also, due to ever evolving global scenariosduring these times and the slow port operations impacted supply chain as delivery of critical components. 

The industrial and commercial markets started improving after the relaxation of the lockdown. Many industries realised the need for own captive sources of power like solar for hasslefree functioning. The commercial and industrial segments continue to grow in a robust way, contrary to the image what we see outside. Utilities have already started recovering and the backlog of projects which were to be completed last year, along with the new tenders have already started happening and will together create the momentum this year. 

How is the household roof-top solar segment recovering? 

Earlier, the adoption of solar power in the residential segment was driven by an uncertain environment on the availability of grid power. Cost was never the primary driver,energy availability was the primary driver. But now with the government schemes like UDAY where rationalisation of tariff was one of the predictions for the DISCOMs to get the financial aid from the central government, there is a positive push for solar adoption. 

In some states, residential tariffs have gone up especially those who fall under the higher bracket of the tariffs. Here, now the feasibility of solar is improving. In fact, many state governments have also started inviting tenders to push the solar segment by giving a capital subsidy.

What is the advantage of having solar power projects? 

Solar power is omnipresent and you can have a solar project wherever you are. The biggest advantage of solar power is the distributed generation, so one need not rely on building a grid infrastructure to high capacity and centralised transmission. Instead, he can install a smaller system at the point of consumption and use it then and there itself.

This is the way the other countries which are big in solar have been growing; largely because of residential adoption. Probably India is the only exception where the growth has happened with larger systems than residential and that’s mainly because of the inverted tariff structure. However, going forward the residential segment is expected to pick up in big way. 

Another area of growth that cannot be missed is in agriculture sector – where the use of solar pumps is being promoted; especially, in rural areas to improve cultivable land. Agri-voltaic projects are also coming up combining benefits of Energy generation as well as agricultural yield. 

What kind of support is required for the revival of roof-top solar adoption in the coming years? 

We have to scale up the massive adoption which is lagging in the residential segment. Lack of awareness is the biggest hurdle for rapid adoption of solar in residential segment followed by ease of finance or funding of these systems. 

We need to effectively counter them by publicity blitz as well as awareness campaigns, about various schemes from Central and state governments. 

Many banks have schemes to finance roof-top residential solar units but awareness at local branch level to logical end is missing. Earlier we overcome these hurdles the faster would be adoption in residential and SOHO segment.

How is Panasonic evolving in its products and technology solutions? 

We are amongst the pioneer and earliest player still actively involved in manufacturing of solar modules. Our journey in solar started in year 1975 and still counting further, while our business in India started from 2015. We have evolved over the years from a pure play distributor of imported solar modules to a total turnkey EPC contractor and then manufacturer and exporter of solar PV modules ‘Made in India’.Under our EPC business, we have installed 85+ MW of projects so far, on ground as well as on the roof. The single-largest project that we have handled is of 30 MW while routinely we handle projects from 500 kW and above. Our overall installed base in India is more than 250+ MWp including our distribution as well as EPC business. 

Last year onwards we also started exporting our ‘Made in India’ solar modules to Turkey and this year we added Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and very soon we would start exporting to Oceanic and many more countries. 

Panasonic as well as Anchor have a strong brand resonance within the residential/domestic sector and we have started the journey of introducing more solar products into the B2C segment. We first launched the solar inverter as a product category focusing on the residential segment. Also, we launched solar streetlights targeting the government business where a lot of street lighting is now shifting towards solar powered. 

Our aim in the next 3-6 months is to launch a residential solar system, a kind of do it yourself (DIY) kit for residential sector where our Panasonic and Anchor brands have a strong presence. We also plan to offer customers a holistic solution of entire package of components and installation using our system integrators or local contractors.

What are your plans to integrate your products and services with solar sources? 

As an organisation, we at Panasonic have many products which can be interconnected on one platform. We are the market leaders in ECM (electrical construction materials) with wires, cables, switches, switchgears, home automation, solar, storage, charging, etc. All these can be bundled together to be operated on one platform. We are looking forward to a real convergence where we can offer complete solutions integrated on one platform for the entire home. 

Customers nowadays are looking for such solutions for convenience and manageability to access and control all home gadgets on single device/platform from remote locations. Our unique platforms like MirAIe and KNX will start getting merged with more and more systems and storage will come as an essential part. In next 3-4 years, we expect a combination of solar + storage to compete with the grid cost. 

What is your market outlook with respect of renewable energy? 

The next two-three decades we would see generation and consumption to keep growing. Market will remain dynamic and buzzing, more receptive, adaptive and a lot of technological innovations which would get incorporated. Reaching net zero or achieving carbon neutrality has seen tremendous interest from not only corporate but even countries committing to these goals.