Interview – Mr. Krishan Sharma – Country Manager – ReneSola Jiangsu Ltd

What is your say on the growth witnessed by PV Module market in India in recent years? What opportunities do you foresee in the market over the coming years?

Indian solar market is one of the biggest solar markets in the world and India is well prepared for reaping the benefits from the country’s high insolation level and has set challenging ambitions in regard to solar PV renewable energy. The stakes are extremely high for India’s prosperity and the renewables industry must not fail to deliver on expectations and it’s indeed a big opportunity for Solar module manufacturers around the world to come and be a part of this market. India has added 4.6GW in Q1 2018.

There are almost 10GW of solar projects in tendering at the moment and this may likely to achieve the tendered capacity of 25 – 30GW in 2018-19 but of course, it’s a policy-driven market and favorable policy framework is must to achieve the goal in a sustainable way.

Take us through Renesola’s journey in India, so far? Also, tell us about your key product and service offerings in solar space?

ReneSola has started its operations in India in 2012. Since then, we have been supplying Solar PV modules to all the major solar developers in the Indian market. We offer our High-Efficiency Polycrystalline Solar PV modules in the Indian market.

What has been the company’s cumulative supply (MW) of the module in India till date? Also, brief us on the module technology & efficiency that you offer to the Indian market?

ReneSola has supplied more than 1.5GW of Solar PV modules in the Indian market and more than 16 GW globally. Our modules are performing aptly in Rooftop as well as in ground-mounted projects which help us to get the repeat orders from existing customers. We believe in bringing something new and stable to the market. We started offering the latest technologically advanced products like PERC, Bifacial, Double Glass, and Half Cut Cells Polycrystalline Modules with efficiency range of >17%.

How do you look at the competition in the Indian market? What is your USP and value-added services that you offer to your clients to keep going in this highly competitive market?

Due to bid over bid declining tariffs, Central and state governments are reconsidering their procurement policies leading to the postponement of some tenders. Meanwhile, some DISCOMs, having completed auctions with higher tariffs are giving second thoughts on signing PPA’s. We believe that this short-term hush will lead to fierce competition in 2018 too.

Our USP for this market is nothing but the technically advanced product on fair price backed up with highly trained sales and technical support team. We believe in 100% customer satisfaction and each customer is equally important to us when it comes to support.

Could you throw some light on pricing trends in the module market during the past year? Do you see module prices stabilizing or fluctuating in the market from here on?

Well, solar module prices are declining much more rapidly than expected and now changes in feed-in tariff rates & installation caps for solar power projects in China will negatively affect the demand for solar power modules in China and may benefit the Indian developers. This is so worth mentioning that modules prices are driven by the supply chain so any problem in the supply chain may be lead to a sudden surge in the prices as we have witnessed in May-August, 2017.

How do you look at the growth possibilities in the rooftop segment? What are your plans for tapping the opportunities in rooftop segment over coming years?

The rooftop solar market is the fastest growing segment of Indian Renewable sector with a cumulative installed capacity of approx. 2GW but the potential is still untapped and growth is not as it has to be to achieve the 40GW ambitious target by 2022. I think states need to make more efforts to mandate the Solar in C&I sector and to incentivize the residential sector.

We are offering high rated best quality solar modules with good prices and better delivery schedules those are must in the rooftop market. We are working on some plans to ensure the local availability of solar PV modules state wise to cater the demands of our new and existing customers in a better and sustainable way.

Where do you see Renesola in the Indian market by 2020? What are your future plans?

Recently China government dropped 10GW from their earlier planned capacity while Indian market became stronger than it was expected earlier. ReneSola is well focussed on the Indian market and got some big plans for coming years in terms of Solar Module but again most importantly this segment is driven by government policies and supportive policies will definitely help to achieve the planned capacity in India.