Avinash Hiranandani
GCEO and Managing Director RenewSys India Pvt. Ltd.
Solar energy is easy to embrace in all industries
RenewSys India Pvt. Ltd. is the first integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaics (PV) modules (750 MW) and its key components—Encapsulants (EVA and POE), backsheets and solar PV cells. Headquartered in Mumbai, RenewSys is the ‘renewable energy’ arm of the Enpee Group, an international conglomerate established in 1961, with a heritage of manufacturing excellence in diverse industries. The Group has offices and distributors/agents in India, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, UAE, and representative offices in the US, Mexico, Brazil and countries across Europe. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Renewsys Global CEO & Managing Director Avinash Hiranandani discusses adoption of solar energy for industrial manufacturing.
What are the hurdles in the adoption of renewable energy, especially solar energy, in industrial manufacturing?
It is easy to adopt renewable energy, especially solar power, as it is a decentralised source of power. This means that you can install any amount of capacity, on your own premises, to suit your space availability, power consumption needs, and capital availability.
In today’s times, it is no longer even discussed whether or not to install a solar power plant – as solar power definitely gives good payback, with less than 4 years needed to break even. One can start with a single installation and then add more installations at the same or separate locations, depending on increases in power consumption, etc.
There are various models like open access which are also available in case any organisation is unable to put up its own CAPEX.
At what rate is solar energy being embraced in industrial manufacturing, especially textile manufacturing?
Solar energy is easy to embrace in all industries, including textiles. The major advantage is that one gets free power, or we can say, daily for 5-6 hrs.
As textile manufacturing, in many cases, is a 24-hour industry, the adoption of solar power will definitely bring down the power cost. This benefit can then be passed on to the customers, ensuring better competitiveness.
India being a tropical country has an abundance of Solar energy. Do you think the potential is underutilised in the country?
India has installed over 60 GW of solar power till date, and the country ranks fourth globally in terms of solar power generation.
Globally and in India, most of the expansion in power plants is happening in the renewable sector. And India being a tropical country with abundant sunny days, we can certainly take full advantage of solar power.
What are the main components that are needed in making solar panels? Which of these are made by RenewSys?
The key components of solar panels include the solar PV cell, which in most cases is silicon, encapsulants and backsheets which are specialised polymers, glass, aluminium frame, copper, etc.
Of these, RenewSys manufactures the solar panel (1.75 GW) and its 3 key components – encapsulants (3 GW), backsheet (4 GW) and PV cells (130 MW).
What is the growth story of RenewSys?
Our consistent growth is made possible due to passion, innovation, and our evolving distributor network.
RenewSys also has several firsts to its credit, including India’s first and only backsheet patent, India’s first 500 Wp+ bifacial glass-backsheet module, and India’s first and largest solar panel performance testing laboratory to be established by a solar panel manufacturer.
How does it feel to be the leading component manufacturer for solar energy in India?
RenewSys is a global leader in PV encapsulant and backsheet manufacturing. With its team of polymer experts and world-class European machinery, RenewSys has produced and supplied over 20 GW of encapsulant and backsheet worldwide. It has to its credit innovations like India’s first transparent backsheet, UL certified POE, and India’s only backsheet patent among others. We supply these components to nearly all solar panel makers in India.
RenewSys also has customers across mature markets like Europe and the US as well as relatively newer markets like Turkiye.
Our production facilities ensure that we meet the highest quality standards, to deliver world class products to our growing customer base. We are expanding our production capacities to 11 GW to meet the growing global and local demand for our products.
Which of the RenewSys products and services are more in demand? Why?
Our new solar panels of 540 Wp+ that were launched in April this year are very high in demand. The main reason being the performance of our panels, their robust quality, and the customer experience of dealing with RenewSys.
RenewSys stands by its word and our earlier supplied panels are performing to the commitments made, making our customers, partners for life.
What helps RenewSys to understand and deliver as per the market dynamics and expectations?
RenewSys always launches cutting-edge or new-age products at the right time. This ensures that they are up to date, offering the customer ‘peace of mind’ at the most cost-effective prices.
We also understand that the customer is making a sizeable expense towards solar projects and giving them the best quality within the committed time helps us meet their expectations.
What would be the cost involved for an average textile unit to install panels and shift to solar energy?
This can be best answered by a solar EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) company. The quote is given based on a textile unit’s energy requirements, space availability, etc.
What are the next plans at RenewSys in terms of expansion, new products, etc?
RenewSys manufactures solar panels at Navi Mumbai in the western region of India and Hyderabad in the South. Our products are available throughout the country through a robust dealer network, that ensures last mile connectivity across India.
We plan to double our business in the short run and regularly introduce new products to keep pace with global solar panel trends. Our 540 Wp panel is one of the highest selling ‘value-for-money’ products in the industry.
What will be your key suggestions for policymakers in order to boost the adoption of solar energy in the textile manufacturing industry in the country?
The Government of India has announced plans to install nearly 30 GW a year up to 2030, to achieve net zero carbon goals in 2050. Hence solar power will continue to be a key and dominant source of clean energy. It will also be important, therefore, for textile manufacturers to adapt to this changing scenario as early as possible.
I would suggest that the textile industry associations should hold learning sessions with solar manufacturers of their choice so that awareness can be created, and the benefits understood by the industry. This will help the textile industry cut costs.
Published on: 05/11/2022
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.
