Solar water heater market to bounce back

In an interview with EPR Magazine, Vishal Kumbhardare, Director, Siddhakala Renewable Energy Systems, shares the upcoming trends in the solar water heater market and the company’s offerings and future plans. 

How do you look at the solar water heater market scenario in this year? 

The market across the country was severely impacted during the lockdown period last year due to restricted entry for external people like technicians at homes for installation. While the commercial and industrial sector were in complete closure due to the strict lockdown. However, with the relaxation in lockdown, things are slowly coming back to normal. We are expecting more demand for solar water heaters in the normal market conditions, once the lockdown is completely removed.

How is the demand trend for solar water heaters evolving in residential, commercial and industrial segments?

As realty sector is improving, there is a growing demand for solar water heaters in this sector. Builders are interested in solar water heaters and many more installations are happening now at various project sites. In Pune where realty market is on an upswing, more than 80 percent builders are using our solar water heaters for their hot water needs.

In the residential segment, people are now thinking of installing more solar water heaters because the price is gradually increasing. But the various benefits that solar water heaters provide like saving in electricity, environment-friendly features and long life attract people towards this product.

What are the major advantages of solar water heaters?

Solar water heaters provide hot water at reasonable price without impacting the environment. They are practically free of maintenance and continuously work with steady performance for a longer period without any technical issues. There is no need of electricity for these water heaters as they work on gravity. We have an electrical back up slot in our system which can be used when there is no sunlight at all, to produce hot water. 

What are the products and services offered by the company? 

We offer solar water heaters for the residential, commercial and industrial applications. These products are available in various capacities ranging from 100 litre to 500 litre in pressurised and non-pressurised versions. The Sun-Shot range of water heaters which we offer has specific advantages compared to other products available in the market. When the other products provide small tubes of size 58 mm x 1,800 mm in their water heaters, our solar water heaters have tube size of 58 mm x 2,100 mm. The bigger size tubes help in getting hot water even when the sunlight is limited.

In the construction of our water heaters, we use galvanised steel of 120 micron with epoxy coating while the other products available in the market are using 80-micron steel. We offer bigger water tanks in our solar water heaters with a tank size of 200 litre. So, our products have a water capacity of 200 litre inside the tank with extra water in tubes also. In domestic sector we have a network of around 150 dealers for our Sun-Shot water heaters. 

What are your expansion plans? 

Apart from supplying our products in domestic market, we are also exporting to markets in South Africa and Dubai. As per their geological conditions we design the products and supply the customers in these countries. We plan to enter other export markets as well once the market improves. We are expanding our production capacity as the demand is growing in domestic market.