Rahul Bhutiani
Head – Sales & Marketing Adani Solar
India’s installed solar manufacturing capacity is rising significantly
Adani Solar, the solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing arm of Adani Group, is India’s first and largest vertically integrated solar company that offers products along with services across the spectrum of photovoltaics manufacturing. The cutting-edge technology, with machines and equipment sourced from the best-in-class suppliers, aim to help in cost leadership, scale of operations and reliability standards as per global benchmarks. Currently, Adani Solar is building the world’s first ever fully integrated and comprehensive eco-system of 10 GW solar PV manufacturing in Mundra, India. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, Adani Solar’s Head-Sales & Marketing Rahul Bhutiani discusses government support and the future of solar PV industry in India.
What is the penetration of solar PV industry in India?
The solar industry in India is poised for an orbital change. The government, regulators, manufacturers, and developers are working in tandem to ensure India meets its ambitious (but achievable) targets for renewable power. The solar industry is capable of taking India to energy security while helping decarbonize the power generation industry. India is currently the third largest market for solar industry, behind China and the US, and we will continue to hold our position in near future too. The solar installations in the country are expected to grow exponentially in the next five years and Adani Solar is geared to support this massive growth in India.
Which are your major markets in terms of geography and applications?
We are looking both at the domestic and export markets significantly. We have been focused on the domestic market in the last few years. While domestic market remains a priority for us, we feel there is an opportunity for Indian manufacturers in exports, as we are now relevant in terms of product portfolio, in terms of quality parameters, and we are capable of meeting all kinds of demands of international customers. The US is a significant market for exports. For the past few months, we’ve been focused on building up an export pipeline. Currently, we have a few good export orders to be delivered over the next 12 months in the US.
Where do you see the prospects growing?
A lot of solar manufacturing capacity is coming onstream, raising India’s installed capacity significantly. Prices are likely to cool off after a very heightened price regime in 2022, across the entire value chain. There has been a significant increase in installations as it is backed by more benign prices and enhanced availability. In terms of technology, the industry has moved away from multicrystalline to more current and futuristic technologies like MonoPERC, TOPCon, and HJT.
How would you describe the steps taken by the government to strengthen solar manufacturing ecosystem in India?
To ensure that India develops its own manufacturing ecosystem in the solar industry, the government has made excellent progress on basic customs duty (BCD), Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) and even the enhanced size of Production Linked Incentive (PLI). Here, the first aspect is allowing domestic manufacturers to be competitive with the imports and the second aspect is helping develop the solar manufacturing capacities in the country. The third aspect is also creating demand for locally manufactured products through subsidies on rooftop projects, solar pump modules etc. All this is helping the manufacturing industry to be able to set up significant capacities to meet India’s requirements and make India ‘energy secure’ in the future. So, I think some great steps have been taken by the government to help the manufacturing industry commit larger funds to enhance capacities and ensure India becomes energy secure.
What kind of investments do you foresee in the next five years from Adani?
For the last 4-5 years, we have been working steadily towards ramping up our manufacturing capacities. We were among the first and few manufacturers who set up giga scale cell manufacturing capacity in 2017. This has held us in good stead with the experience over last five years giving us the confidence to commit further into our expansion plan. Adani Group is investing around $70 billion in the renewable sector and a significant part of the investment would focus on the manufacturing sector. As a group, there are plans to set up three giga factories for wind, solar, and electrolyser manufacturing.
What are the future expansion plans at Adani Solar?
We are creating a fully integrated solar manufacturing ecosystem in India by June 2025. So, we are looking at expanding our capacities on cells and modules from the current level of 4 GW to 10 GW by June 2025. But not limiting ourselves to cell and module, we are going deep into the value chain, and we are also setting up a similar 10 GW facility for MG Silicon, polysilicon, Ingot, and Wafers. Additionally, in the same geography, we are setting up ancillary units for manufacturing aluminium frames, glass, backsheet, trackers etc. This will give us whole supply chain control, and we will be able to ensure the availability of supplies at all times.
What new innovations and technologies are you working towards?
Currently, we have 2 GW of MonoPERC modules which are in the bin range of 530 to 545 Wp. In our 10 GW plan, we are coming up with a new manufacturing facility of 2 GW where we will be bringing the N-Type TOPCon technology which will give higher power efficiency ratings of up to 570 Wp. This will be available from June 2023. Our Cell & Module manufacturing line is equipped to produce high-efficiency cells and modules with M10 & G12 wafers sizes in various technologies. Additionally, we shall also bring other emerging solar module technologies in the future.
Published on: 03/02/2023
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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