India having high solar radiation and governments push for the renewable energy source, the solar story has finally begun and will witness major growth in the next few years. Indian companies should also shift their focus from manufacturing modules to solar cells. Saatvik Green Energy is one of the leading manufacturers of solar panels and products and is also working in the solar EPC space.
India has a domestic manufacturing capacity of 3 GW for solar cells and 15GW for solar modules. The government has been taking steps to boost domestic manufacturing of solar photovoltaic (PV) models and modules and to protect domestic companies from cheap and sub-standard imports. Solar module manufacturers are also working to offer quality assured products to drive India’s growing green economy.
Saatvik Green Energy Pvt Ltd manufactures and markets high quality, high efficiency solar photovoltaic modules with an annual production capacity of 500 MW. With its manufacturing facility at Ambala, Saatvik is one of the largest solar companies in North India. The company is adding another 300 MW to its production capacity from August 2021 onwards. Speaking to Machine Maker, Chief Executive Officer Prashant Mathur talks about the Saatvik’s company’s vision and the solar power scene in India.
An engineer and MBA from the University of Mumbai, Prashant Mathur comes with vast experience and exposure of setting up projects and leading international business for Targray Technology, Vikram Solar and Adani Solar. In 2016 he joined Solis Solar, and let the business as its Chief Marketing Officer, and majorly doing solar projects and came to be well known in solar Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC) space.
In April 2021, Prashant joined Saatvik Green Energy as its Chief Executive Officer, and the company plans to increase its global footprint and is also setting up a manufacturing facility in Gujarat. Prashant says, “We intend to set up a greenfield 3GW integrated module for cell manufacturing in Gandhi Dham. Saatvik is also making its foray in the EPC space and various other aspects of solar business.”
Increasing the solar power target
India had a legacy in building solar energy way back at the end of the 1970s, which was mostly initiated by the Government level. Prashant recollects, “The solar story in India began in 2008 – 2009 when solar actually became mainstream. During that time solar used to be a rather expensive source of power. At that time the power purchase agreement at Rs 20 per unit. It was more like a CSR activity for the companies, a social gesture to invest in renewable energy. From that state of affairs, solar today is the cheapest form of power. So, it is an unimaginable change that the industry has witnessed in the course of time.”
In 2010, the National Solar Mission was announced with 20 GW of solar installations by 2020. “With the coming of Narendra Modi government at the central government, the target was revised to 100 GW of solar in 175 GW overall renewable. The industry was surprised as it appeared like an unscalable task. Today in 2021, we already have over 30 GW of installations done in India.”
About 40 GW to 50 GW of projects is under installation. The 100 GW target looks quite possible now, and the government now intends for 450 GW of renewable energy. Prashant describes this change as a complete paradigm shift for the Indian solar market. In India getting electricity for the population is a huge task. Thanks to the country’s very high solar radiation and the fact that solar can be done in smaller installations with nominal transmission issues, the remote villages have access to power.
When the global solar market was controlled by Germany and Japan the process was very high. From 2010 to 2012, China entered the market and scaled up to fifty times of the large manufacturers in Europe and America, with such a scale the cost rapidly came down. “Prior to that renewable made sense but the cost was prohibitive. The moment the price started getting below Rs 8, it started making sense to the distributor all the more because a lot of industries were paying more than that for the electricity,” says Prashant Mathur.
Market growth with increasing demand
During its initial days in India, solar power had major challenges, the domestic demand was very low and there was no definite policy from the state in terms of production of solar power and products.
The key enabler was the National Solar Mission and the subsequent increase in production target as set by the government under Narendra Modi. Prashant “The industry started adapting to solar power and the number of manufacturers grew along with the ancillaries. As the government promoted the sector, the market also grew. When the demand is there everything else follows,” says Prashant.
Shift focus to cell manufacturing
In terms of technology whatever, today happens in China, is available in India. Technology adoption is not a hindrance which happens quite rapidly. Parshant says, “India has primarily been focusing on module manufacturing and cell manufacturing was very small. Polysilicon and wafer were not happening in India, now the government with the PLI schemes and implementation of custom duty, things will be consistent for some years now. The government is doing everything to bring manufacturing in India. Once polysilicon and wafer are manufactured in India, we will be competing with China.”
Prashant believes the growth story of India in the renewable energy sector has just begun. Given India has three hundred plus days of solar radiation and it is the cheapest form of energy the prospect is rather high. “India’s domestic share of renewable energy is less than 20%. This is going to change as the government wants to considerably reduce the thermal dependency.”
“The per capita energy consumption in developed countries is eight times than the Indian consumer. Since India is on its path to development, the per capita energy consumption will keep on increasing. And also, because the grids are often unstable during the night, the future of solar is going towards hybrid or solar with storage devices,” concludes Prashant Mathur.