EQ In Exclusive Conversation With Mr. D.V. Manjunatha, Founder & Managing Director At EMMVEE

EQ In Exclusive Conversation With Mr. D.V. Manjunatha, Founder & Managing Director At EMMVEE.

1. Proposed BCD on Module/Cells Import in India. What are your views on this?

India has a huge capability to manufacture solar Photovoltaic modules and cells. A company like Emmvee which has been into solar manufacturing since 1992 has acquired enormous experience and knowledge to produce world-class products and supply them to the global markets. Our eastern counterpart has enjoyed a lot of benefits in terms of supply chain and other incentives leading to a number of cases relating to the dumping of solar PV modules.

The announcement to impose a basic customs duty of at least 40% on solar imports is an extremely important development providing great relief to the Indian solar manufacturers especially with the existing safeguards duty ending this July. It will also act as a booster to expand our manufacturing capabilities as well as backward integrate into cell, ingot, and Polysilicon manufacturing.

While the basic customs duty will come into effect only from April 2022, there is no clarity on whether the existing safeguards duty will continue till that date or there will be no duty on solar PV modules till then. It is extremely important that the existing safeguards duty is continued until basic custom duty comes into effect. This will help the local manufacturers to sustain and concentrate on expanding their module capacity as well as backward integration to compete in the global market.

2. Please share your Product Road Maps – Pricing, Technology etc…

Emmvee, since its inception in 1992 has been a pioneer in manufacturing solar water heating systems and with solar photovoltaic modules from 2006. We have always strived to develop innovative solutions and have always been the first movers in the industry to adopt new technological advancements. We are the first company to set up a fully automated PV module manufacturing facility and the only company to use a multi-stack Burkle laminator from Germany. Also, we are the first Indian company to introduce a fully automated tabber stringer for PV module manufacturing.

Emmvee is planning to expand its PV module manufacturing capacity to 1.5 GW from 500 MW by the end of 2022 at its existing Dobaspet facility in Bengaluru. We are also planning to expand into cell manufacturing by as early as 2023. All our production facilities will be capable of completely manufacture and handle the new technology of PV modules of up to 650 Watt peak and cells of up to 220 mm. This line will be capable to produce glass to glass, glass to back sheet, half cut cell, and one-third cut cell modules. This state-of-the-art facility will also have a world-class laboratory to ensure all our materials used in the manufacturing PV modules are of this most superior quality and standards to achieve the highest production results.

3. World Market Scenario and its impact on pricing and availability of modules in this year ,A Expected Pricing & Availability in this year and next year?

The solar PV module industry has also been a victim of the on-going pandemic like any other industry. This has resulted in an unprecedented increase in prices over the last year which has never been witnessed before. Apart from some shortage of supplies, there seems to be no proper evidence to show the exact reason for the increase in prices. In the current financial year as well a similar price trend is continuing and I’m not yet able to see any downward trend in the price of raw materials especially solar cells. All though some materials have had a price correction compared to last year where one of the key material solar glass prices had increased substantially and now there has to seem to be a decrease in that price, but other materials remain to be going on an upward trend.

Apart from increasing prices, we have seen good demand in the coming months. Developers throughout the industry are aggressively building for projects and the same is passed on to the supply chain. Also, the incoming basic custom duty and the implementation of ALMM from October are all showing positive expectations for companies across the solar manufacturing industry.

4. How much modules have you supplied to India till now, what is the target/expectation in this year and next year?

Emmvee has a strong history of being one of the most reliable PV module manufacturers in the solar industry. Since 2006 we have supplied more than 2 GW of solar PV modules globally. Emmvee has a strong presence not only in India but also in international markets such as Western Europe, Africa, Middle East, and North America. With our expansion plans to increase PV module manufacturing capacity to over 1.5 GW by the end of 2022, we are expecting to supply over 5 GW of solar PV modules by the end of 2023.

5. Kindly enlighten our readers on the performance of your modules in India in various geographic locations, customer feedback.

Emmvee has a strong record of commissioning more than 200 MW of solar projects and has manufactured and supplied more than 2GW of solar modules in India and across the world. It has developed rich expertise in executing solar photovoltaic roof top projects, large scale solar photovoltaic power projects, land to PPA (Power Purchase Agreement), EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) projects, O&M (Operation & Maintenance) of large projects and OEM and retail sale of solar PV modules for DCR & Non-DCR requirements.

Emmvee over the years has built a strong brand legacy of providing world-class quality products across the world. Emmvee right from its inception has focused on make in India ideology and has a proven record of supplying and installing world-class quality products across the world including countries such as Germany, France, UK, Yemen, South Africa, and Canada Etc.

6. What are the new technology innovations in Solar Modules, Logistical aspects usage of larger format modules?

Now over to 650 WP, Solar industry has taken large strides.

Initially, it started off as just a paradigm shift from Poly Silicon cells to Mono Silicon cells, whereas it has now become much more than that with the introduction of PERC technology, half cut, bifacial with double glass and with transparent backsheet. It is also not wrong to note that all these changes have happened just in over a couple of years. Emmvee has adapted to these changes quickly, we have introduced our half cut and bifacial modules in 2018, as one of the first entrants in India. Although most of these technological advancements involve huge capital expenditure in PV module production, but heavy has not side away from adapting to these change including in these times of pandemic and uncertainties, Emmvee is expanding its capacity to adapt to this new technological innovations of state of the art facility to produce this hi a fish and see modules including using larger format cells. Emmvee to launch modules with over 600 Watt peak power rating in the coming year.

ALMM and BCD have certainly been graciously welcomed in the industry along with PLI. These policies have been some of the driving factors for module manufacturers to focus on capacity enhancements and backward integrations. In the meantime main focus at the moment is to make sure there is an interim duty of at least 14.5% to ensure sustainability of the module manufacturers.

Also, a long term policy framework is required from the Government .The government should concentrate on building strong integrated solar industrial clusters along with a clear policy framework for solar manufactures to prosper in India. We need a clear policy framework from the government ensuring substantial solar cell and module production demand in the next few years for Indian solar manufactures.

Technological advancement and innovation is the key to truly achieve Atma Nirbhar Bharat in the solar manufacturing sector. It will also lower the dependence on imports eventually 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 centre, and other required supporting services.

By creating a value chain at a single location within the country will not only help India to compete with China at the domestic level but also in the international market. It will also reduce the reliability of duties/tariffs imposed by the Indian government

7. Please describe in brief about your company, directors, promoters, investors, its vision & mission

Started with an idea to bring clean and sustainable hot water to households in Bengaluru, our company has strong values and belief in the renewable sector. Our organisation and every one of our employee strives to make our vision of making every individual energy independent a reality. All our stakeholders strongly work towards the same vision and mission with enormous prior experience in the renewable sector as well as in the corporate world to achieve our goals successfully

8. What are the top 5 markets for your company in the past, present and future?

With a strong brand name reflecting our values of trust and quality markets across the globe accept our products showing strong customer loyalty. We take pride in repetitive customers who prefer our products and trust our quality aspects. With strong roots in India aligning to the Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Make In India campaigns we are strongly keeping ourselves as one of the largest module manufacturers and suppliers in the country. Apart of hour home turf we have had great response for our products in the American, European, African and Middle Eastern mark.