We need to create ecosystem for local solar PV manufacturers

Prashant Mathur, CEO, Saatvik Green Energy (P) Ltd., in an interaction with EPR magazine, talks about various factors impacting the Solar PV manufacturers in India.

Kindly walk us through your company’s profile!

Saatvik is one of India’s largest module manufacturers, and our current capacity is 500 MW. We are adding another 300 MW in Ambala and then another 1.2 GW in Gujarat, with this our capacity will be 2 GW by the end of March 2022. We manufacture Poly, Mono-PERC, half-cut modules, and high efficiency solar modules. We have been manufacturing solar modules for over five years now.

Market trends are impacting demand for solar PV modules and PV cells 

Of course, there are impacts, especially due to policy changes, increased dependence on China, and constant price rises for the last one and a half years are impacting demand in a way for many projects. 30-40 GW of projects have been dead or successful, but at tariffs where current prices are not sustainable for them to install the projects. Because of these high prices, ground installations are not happening, which again affects the market demand. Manufacturers are also on the fence, waiting for market policies to stabilise before increasing production quantities. 

Manufacturing facilities are being increased and new players are also sitting on the fence because of the increase in prices in terms of government policies. Like GST, which has suddenly increased from 5 to 12 percent, there is also BCD, which is going to come into effect in April 2022. There is no duty currently in place to protect us against an onslaught. Market demands are constantly fluctuating and there is no consistency

India has a domestic manufacturing capacity of 3GW when it comes to solar cells and 15 GW for solar modules. How can PV manufacturers utilise this opportunity to promote solar PV?

Out of this 3GW cell capacity, the actual capacity utilisation is not very high. Presently, the capacity utilisation is only about 50 percent to 60 percent of cell capacities and 50 percent to 60 percent of module capacities as well. Despite the fact that installed capacities range between 3 and 15 GW, actual capacity utilisation is only 50 percent to 60 percent. I think the market needs to be protected, and we must reduce our dependency on Chinese imports. We must create an ecosystem within which manufacturers have consistency in terms of policies and market demand, so that they can backward integrate and setup wafer and energy and poly-silicon. In terms of demand, India has consistent demand and solar has arrived in terms of cost, as the unit cost of power is low, and the government wants to have 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. So, there is no dearth of demand in the market. The only problem is that there is inconsistent demand and policies. Once these things start coming in, the manufacturers will automatically expand capacities, backward and forward integrate, and stand on their own rather than be dependent on China.

The government has taken good initiatives like BCD coming from April; PLI is also a good initiative which will bring in integrated manufacturing-based incentives. Though it is very small in terms of PLI, which will begin at about `4500 crores, but at least it’s a start. Once that happens, people will definitely move towards solar. In terms of rooftops, when you say residential and commercial rooftops, that option will increase when we have consistency, as every state has different policies which keep on changing. Some states have 500 kilowatts and others are not doing it as it is difficult to get early approvals. This is further slowing down the adoption of solar and the rooftop market as well. 

Challenges in terms of pricing and delivering quality products 

So, apart from wafers, most of the products are now manufactured in India. So ancillaries are developed in India. So, EV batteries, glass, junction boxes and ribbons are already being manufactured in India, which are not as efficient in terms of quality, but we are getting them every day. If we talk about quality, then what we receive from China and what is being made in India is similar. If a sizable manufacturer comes up with poly-silicon and wafer manufacturing in India, we can decrease our dependence on China. That will help scale this industry. Firstly, Chinese imports and its fluctuation not only affect the manufacturing but also the prices because you have various fluctuations. Because, China has a monopoly on the market, so, globally, they determine the prices. Secondly, dollar fluctuation and freight logistics have become a big headache nowadays with rising logistic costs. 

So the only way it can get solved is to make in India and to develop local manufacturing for Solar PV because the market is already there, when ancillaries will come and we will not be dependent on China. 

What are your key offerings? 

We recently launched high-efficiency half-cut multiples bars of solar modules with 610 watt panels at the 14th edition of the Renewable Energy India (REI) Exhibition. These products are top of the line and the highest efficiency modules available globally. We have also entirely rebranded ourselves, and have created a new brand logo wherein we have dropped Saatvik Green Energy and become a group brand that denotes our commitment to renewable energy with fresh ideas and high ambitions. 

We are setting up a Greenfield manufacturing project in Gujarat in Gandhidham which is of 52 acre land wherein we will be building a fully integrated renewable energy cluster. To start with, we’ll be doing 2GW of solar module integration, but in the future we want to develop it as a renewable energy cluster wherein we want to do batteries and also inverters and other products related to renewable energy. 

So, if we are also looking for some technology partners wherein we can scale it up and we can also bring in backward integration in terms of forward integration, we’re looking at getting into the EPC and IPC business.