Que: India is rapidly building domestic module manufacturing capacity under the country's localisation push. How has this changed demand for locally manufactured PV ribbons and other module components?

Ans: The shift has been significant. For years, module makers treated ribbon as an imported commodity bought mainly on price. With ALMM now extending from modules to cells, and domestic content requirements shaping procurement for government and rooftop programmes, manufacturers are looking hard at the entire bill of materials, not just the cell. Enquiries for domestically manufactured ribbon have grown sharply, and the conversation has changed. Customers now want shorter lead times, supply security, the ability to co-develop specifications for new cell designs, and a supplier who can respond on the shop floor within hours rather than weeks.

That said, a large share of ribbon consumed in India is still imported, often at prices that do not reflect fair manufacturing costs. For localisation to be complete, component manufacturing needs the same policy attention that module and cell manufacturing has received. We are working with industry through SAMA and with BIS on a dedicated Indian Standard for tinned copper interconnect, so that quality benchmarks are clear and domestic manufacturers compete on a level field.

Que: Valeo has an ambition to reach 10 GW of production capacity. What is the current status of this expansion, and what will be the next major capacity milestone for the company?

Ans: We currently operate around 18 GW of PV ribbon capacity at our plant in Telangana, which makes us India's leading domestic manufacturer of tinned copper interconnect. Our expansion to 30 GW is being executed in phases, aligned with the cell and module capacity our customers are commissioning. The next milestone is 21 GW by March 2026, which includes new plants and advance machinery to handle future improvements and technologies like HJT, Back Contact, etc.

Alongside capacity, we are investing in AI based machine inspection and product validation systems on our coating lines and in integrated management system certification (ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001), with IATF 16949 to follow. Scale matters, but our customers also need consistency lot after lot, and we are building both together.

Que: PV ribbon is a relatively small component within a solar module, but it directly affects current collection, electrical losses, soldering and long-term reliability. How much attention should module manufacturers be paying to ribbon selection?

Ans: Far more than its share of module cost suggests. Ribbon carries every ampere the cell generates, so its resistivity and cross-section directly affect cell-to-module losses. Its mechanical properties matter just as much. A ribbon with high yield strength transmits stress into the cell during stringing and throughout the module's life, which becomes a source of microcracks, especially on today's thinner wafers. Coating thickness and uniformity determine solder joint quality and peel strength, and poor coating shows up later as hotspots or power loss in the field.

Our advice to module makers is to qualify ribbon as seriously as they qualify cells and encapsulants: evaluate yield strength, elongation, dimensional tolerance, coating consistency and solderability on their own stringers, and audit the supplier's process control, not just the datasheet. A ribbon failure is very expensive to discover in year eight of a 25-year warranty.

Que: TOPCon has become one of the dominant cell technologies in India. What specific changes have you had to make to your ribbon products to support TOPCon module manufacturing?

Ans: TOPCon has pushed the industry firmly toward multi-busbar designs, so the biggest change has been the move from flat ribbon to fine round wire, with diameters now in the 0.24 mm range and trending lower as busbar counts rise. That requires much tighter control of wire diameter, roundness and concentric coating thickness, because small variations translate directly into stringing yield losses.

TOPCon cells are also thinner and more sensitive to mechanical and thermal stress, so we have focused on low-yield-strength, highly annealed copper that relieves stress on the cell, and on coating chemistries suited to lower soldering temperatures. We work closely with customers' process teams to match wire specifications to their specific stringers and cell metallisation. We are also developing products for the next steps, including low-temperature alloys for heterojunction and readiness for zero-busbar architectures.

Que: With solar modules now expected to operate for 25–30 years or more, how do you validate the long-term reliability of your ribbons under thermal cycling, humidity and other environmental stresses?

Ans: Reliability is built in at the process level and then verified. In our in-house laboratory, every lot is tested for tensile strength, yield strength, elongation, dimensional accuracy, coating thickness and solderability, and we carry out metallographic cross-section analysis to check coating integrity and the copper-tin interface.

For long-term performance, we support module-level qualification under IEC 61215 sequences, including thermal cycling, damp heat and humidity-freeze, with customers and accredited laboratories. We also track the stability of intermetallic growth at the solder joint, as this governs how the joint behaves over decades. Results from these tests feed back into our alloy selection, annealing parameters and coating control, so validation becomes a continuous loop rather than a one-time certificate.

Que: Copper prices can have a significant impact on the economics of PV ribbons. How is Valeo managing raw-material volatility while maintaining price competitiveness?

Ans: Copper is the bulk of our material cost, so volatility cannot simply be absorbed. We price transparently, with the metal component linked to recognised copper benchmarks and our conversion cost quoted separately, which gives customers clarity and protects both sides from sudden swings. This level of transparency and our 40 + year track record in the non-ferrous conductor industry helps us with long term contracts and a very reliable supply chain ensuring that we can supply without hitch. Where we compete is conversion efficiency: higher line speeds, better yields, lower scrap and energy use, backed by more than 40 years of copper processing experience.

Competitiveness is also a policy question. Today, imported ribbon sometimes enters at duty rates lower than those paid on our own copper input, which creates an inverted duty structure. Correcting such anomalies would let Indian manufacturers compete on genuine efficiency.