Energetica India Magazine January-February 2021

• 40 MW solar power plant at Bagepal- li, Kunigal, and Bidar in Karnataka with 132,000 polycrystalline modules and a power generation capacity of 72 million U/a. • Planned and executed many rooftop projects for large Manufacturing units and factories. WE have installed 1 MW rooftop PV plant at our own solar water heater manufacturing facility at Dobes- pet, Karnataka, capable of generating approximately 1.43 million units of power yield annually and saving approximately 1814 tonnes of CO2 annually. • Emmvee was one the first solar com - pany in India to execute 1 MW of solar project for Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL Infrastructures Ltd) in Ker- ala. It is the first Greenfield airport project executed in a public-private partnership model in the civil aviation infrastructure sector in India. The Airport was officials declared the first airport in the world to be fully powered by solar energy. • Developed a flat RCC solar power project of 1.1MWp at the University of Hyderabad approximately saving 1426 tonnes of CO2 annually. In your view, on which pointers cur- rently the government need to focus amidst Covid-19 scenario to provide further boost to the solar energy sec- tor? D.V. M anjunatha : Building strong inte- grated solar industrial clusters along with clear policy framework from the gov- ernment a must for solar manufactures to prosper in India. The government should also create a specialized infrastructure covering the entire value chain from R&D, testing, training center, and other required sup- porting services. We need a clear policy framework from the government ensuring substantial so- lar cell and module production demand in the next few years for Indian solar manufactures. The current safeguard duty percentage will not help the Indian manufacturers as Chinese prices are still comparatively very low. There must be at least 40% of BCD on modules for the Indian manu- facturers to compete with their Chinese counterparts. Emmvee right from its inception in the year 1992 has set high standards of manufacturing process. By taking the same standard forward, we have decid- ed to increase our production capacity in the coming year to give the domes- tic manufacturing a further boost. The increased production line will have the most advanced and world class state-of- the-art facility to compete with the best of the solar manufacturers across the world. How do you see the scope for techno- logical advancement and innovation in the domestic solar manufacturing industry amidst PM Narendra Modi’s call for AatmNirbhar Bharat? D.V. M anjunatha : Technological ad- vancement and innovation is the key to truly achieve AtmaNirbhar Bharat in solar manufacturing sector. It will also lower the dependence on imports even- tually leading the way for an increased demand for local solar manufacturers. To achieve this goal, the government should build integrated solar industrial clusters in India and create a specialized infrastructure covering the entire value chain from R & D, testing, training center, and other required supporting services. By creating value chain at a single loca- tion within the country will not only help India to compete with China at the do- mestic level but also in the international market. It will also reduce the reliability on duties/tariffs imposed by the Indian government. How do you analyze the year 2021 will be for the solar sector, as compared to 2020? D.V. M anjunatha : The on-going coro- na virus pandemic has aggravated the problems faced by the solar industry. The lockdown disrupted the supply chains leading to delays in the execution of ongoing as well as new projects. Also, the inconsistency in the supply chain re- sulted in cost fluctuations of components which further aggravated the liquidity is- sues resulting in decrease in solar power demand. This economic crisis has large- ly affected India’s solar import and export along with on-going solar construction activities, which affected even before the actual lockdown started in India. The pandemic has resulted in a deep economic crisis which may lead to a long term impact on the renewable sec- tor including the solar industry. But the demand for solar power is expected to bounce back as the crisis settles and all the delayed projects will rollback reach- ing the same level as expected. Solar energy is considered to be more resilient to handle the pandemic situation than other conventional sources such as coal and other fuels. The important fac- tor being it is a relatively cheaper and cleaner source of energy along with the significance it has on the economic vi - ability. The government of India is also expect- ed to provide a supporting hand to the domestic solar industry by taking the present situation into cognizance. The government should create a proper road map that will help them reach the ag- gressive targets of 450 GW of renewable energy target by 2030. INTERVIEW 20 energetica INDIA- Jan-Feb_2021