Interview with Ganges Internationale on Solar Tracker System

In conversation with Ganges Internationale on Solar Tracker System

By Saur News Bureau/ Updated On Sat, Nov 5th, 2016

Solar trackers
Interview with Vinay Goyal, C.E.O, Ganges Internationale (P) Ltd

helps in maximizing energy production by providing 15-20% additional power, hence helps in improving the LCOE of Solar Plants. It generate more electricity in roughly the same amount of space needed for fixed tilt systems, making them ideal for optimizing land usage.

In India, looking at the available space it is important to generate more from the view point of the producer to enable better LCOE. The fact is, it is just the beginning of the solar era in India, solar plants must be equipped with new technologies to help them gain more (than the fixed tilt systems) thus trackers should be considered priority when planning to install ground fixed system

Sunlink tracker is a centralized drive tracker on proven hydraulic technology and simplifies the mechanics and maintenance of single axis trackers. It can track up to 1.2 MWp of Solar block with a single tracker. Therefore, fewer components and less points of failure. Moreover, it uses standard industrial grade components which are durable and commercially available unlike other tracker technologies which use customized components leading to service difficulties.

What kind of infrastructure does SunLink enjoy for reliability testing and manufacturing in India?

GIPL partnership with Sunlink is a strategic move to gain economies of scale on the existing running projects by increasing energy output. We have always looked out for best solution for our customer to harness maximum energy from the sun thus GIPL’s world- class engineering and manufacturing capability along with Sunlink’s proven tracker technology together will set a new benchmark for the solar industry.

Sunlink partnership with Ganges has given them a one stop shop for executing complete package of solar tracker projects apart from manufacturing and supplying of structures which helps in increasing market share with Ganges in house team for designing of customized structure solution and project management team for execution of solar projects. Ganges’s structures are designed as low as 30 MT/MWp sustaining 175 kmph wind speed.
GIPL is expert in proving mounting solutions with best design and least product cost, whereas Sunlink has the advantage of delivering best technology to harness sun’s energy dawn to dusk efficiently. The partnership shows a huge advantage to people, who are carefully understanding the solar power economics and demanding best product with latest technology.

Ganges has state of the art manufacturing facility at Pondicherry with capacity of 48000MT per annum. We will be executing approx 1.6 GW in FY 2016-17 and looking to achieve installations 5 GW cumulative by 2018-19 which also includes tracker systems. We have our plans in place to cater the infrastructure and fund requirement to cater such expansion.

What differentiates Ganges/SunLink from the other solar tracker manufacturers?

Ganges-Sunlink tracker is a single axis horizontal tracking system with tilt angle of +-52.5 degree which is compatible for all major module manufacturers.

One drive can accommodate up to 62 rows with 60 modules in each row, so the array configuration can be 2 MWp DC for a single drive. While we offer 105 mph as standard wind velocity which can be designed up to 150 mph with 0 psf snow load and up to 120 mph with 50 psf snow load as per the design requirement of any location.

It has inbuilt snow algorithm which includes wind speed and snow shedding. It takes approximately 3 minutes to stow. These are few of the technical specification of the Ganges-Sunlink trackers which gives an edge over our competitors.

Warranties for Mechanical and Structural Components are 10 Years where as Controllers and Actuators are warranted for 5 Years. We give Plant Uptime of 99% for 1 Year. Also extended warranty and O&M are available on request.

GOI has set aggressive and optimistic target to achieve 100GW of solar installed capacity by 2022. Presently, we plan to focus to educate our customers more on the tracker technology through its benefits and cost advantages.
The more the education, the more customers to follow the tracking technology.

In India the trackers are now taking shape, we are now getting many RFQ with trackers so we hope that in next few years we will see more installations with solar trackers. The tracker installations have not reached to a stage where we can actually analyze the market share but we can say that we are very strongly and dominantly placed in the solar tracker business with proven technology.