INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
EQ: Enlighten our readers on the Off grid solar applications such as solar water pumping, home lighting, rural & agriculture applications, gadgets, mini & micro grids, Solar PV diesel hybrid systems & technologies, markets, Solar power in public sector, defense, off shore areas etc.
AH: Off-grid solar has a lot of potential, but as a developer it’ s hard to justify attention there when the on-grid market is exploding, and is much more scalable. I doubt the on-grid developers will really succeed in these applications anytime soon, for this reason. I would love to see some more focused entrants in these areas make their mark in some of these markets, which will require a very different focus.
EQ: Kindly enlighten our readers with the power tariffs in various states for commercial, industrial and residential customers, tariffs for various levels of consumptions, power availability / shortage, the price trends
AH: Industrial tariffs typically range from Rs. 6 / kwh to Rs. 8 / kwh, with Maharashtra(> Rs 9 / kwh) as the highest. The only states still below Rs 6 / kwh are smaller states with a lot of hydroelectric power. Commercial tariffs are typically around Rs. 1-2 / kwh higher than industrial tariffs. Grid tariffs are unpredictable and political in the short term, but surprisingly consistent( 5- 6 % CAGR) in all major states when taken over a period of 5 or more years. It’ s reasonable to expect this trend to continue over the next 5 years or more.
EQ: Are there any financing benefits like interest or capital subsidies by Government, banks, NBFC’ s for financing distributed solar projects?
AH: These benefits exist in theory, but both banks and developers have struggled to use them. This reflects a fundamental challenge of the distributed space: aggregating small projects to a scale at which large-scale financing can be done
EQ: Please present some business models, finance models, returns expectations, insurance, lending rates
AH: Particularly in the corporate segment where CleanMax focuses, the PPA model is really starting to dominate over the capex model. When they have the choice, very few corporates want to own these assets themselves. When we look at our competitors in the rooftop PPA space, we see a wide range. For larger projects, utility scale developers may be present, but it’ s hard for them to divert attention to MW-scale orders when they are simultaneously targeting tenders in the hundreds of MWs. There are a few pure-play players like CleanMax
Solar, which are more focused, but many are very small. We have seen more of these emerge in the past 12- 18 months. We have seen one or two competitors pitching solar leases, but have not gotten much traction in the corporate segment. I can credit a lot of CleanMax Solar’ s success in this segment to our consistent focus. It’ s impossible to do everything well, and we always strive to keep a laser focus on our target corporate customers.
EQ: Foreign Investment: What is the scenario of foreign investors( Debt & Equity in this space)?
AH: While foreign investment has been an important factor in utility scale solar of late, this is less true in the distributed space, where the scale is smaller.
EQ: Kindly present best technology solutions … module, inverters, mounting, BOS … the roadmap etc.
AH: As a long-term investment, investors will be wary of unproven technologies, and the most attractive PV technology improvements are often the incremental ones. We place a lot of importance on components like module mounting structures, where I think quality is often neglected in the cost-competitive Indian market. We are currently looking at microinverters, but the cost needs to be competitive for it to become mainstream.
EQ: Enlighten our readers with Market shares of various players in the value chain such as Developers, EPC, Modules, Inverters, Mounting etc.
AH: Bridge to India is the most reliable source for market share in distributed solar. CleanMax has been # 1 in the past 2 years since the survey began, with market share around 25 %, and we are the only truly national player. Amplus Solar has emerged quickly recently, partly by buying out SunEdison’ s rooftop assets. The market is very fragmented.
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EQ December 2016 www. EQMagPro. com