Viz-A-Viz with Vineet Mittal, Director | Navitas Solar

Q. Please introduce us to Navitas Solar and also share with us some of the recent past achievements in India?

A. Navitas Solar is a dynamic solar energy company based out of India whose business is manufacturing Solar PV Modules, providing turnkey EPC services to Solar PV projects and various solar energy technology applications and investing in rooftop solar projects to supply electricity. Recently, we have expanded our manufacturing capacity to 200 MW per annum from 75 MW per annum.

Q. Navitas Solar appears to have a foothold in all of the major solar photovoltaic technologies, producing multi-crystalline module equipment. Can you tell what advantages do Navitas Solar panels have over other brands?

A. It is true that we are catering to different solar PV technology applications and it requires different type of Solar Modules. Advantage which a buyer has when choosing Navitas Solar Modules is that they get best quality product for our raw material comes from the best available sources and our manufacturing process is highly automated to achieve best of workmanship reducing chances of faulty product. We focus on quality and customers are assured to get value for money.

Q. Can you tell us more about your cell technology, and how that increases cell efficiencies?

A. Cell technology which we are using is both poly-crystalline and mono-crystalline. Research made into the field has allowed us to deliver higher output per module.

Q What are the current trends in India’s solar industry?

A. We see high growth trends in Indian Solar industry with distributed segment set to pick up with policies getting stable and prices coming down. There are however few policy matters like safeguard duty which is holding off interest in utility scale solar segment.

Q. How would you like to respond to government’s role to manufacturers for establishing a solar power plant? Do you think they are doing enough for the solar sector?

Government’s role can be of a facilitator and with the recent draft policy document, they have shown intent to help domestic manufacturing industry to grow in phased manner and if the objectives can be matched with clear roadmap to off take, we understand that we are moving in right direction.

Q. Do you think India has reached its low in solar tariffs or is there scope for the further decrease in solar tariffs? Or will we see the tariffs see a reverse trend?

A. Presently, tariffs seem to have achieved a lower base but future decline cannot be discounted. The decline is due to courtesy of lesser cost of finance and fall in prices of modules. Both of the factors have remained stable from past few months. Rise from present levels of tariff is not predicted at the moment but we will not be surprised if a little correction happens as storage comes into play.

Q. What is your take on Chinese module manufacturers who offer cheaper prices than Indian or European manufacturers?

A. There are different types of manufacturers everywhere and to term each manufacturer in a single category won’t be right but looking at macro level, Chinese manufacturers do get benefits from the State which makes them more competitive in pricing their products cheaper than the rest of the world for which governments need to come up with solutions to provide a level playing field.

Q. Many players are now in this industry and it seems competition is also high. How are you taking this challenge? What kind of innovation are you coming up with?

While it remains true that new entrants are making competition stiffer day by day but on the other hand market is also expanding making space for quality manufacturers and service providers. We are very much focused on customer satisfaction and generating brand loyalty in our customer base to secure our market share and also scaling up to keep up with the growing market, both domestic as well as overseas.

Q. What are your views about the decline in solar prices in India and globally?

It is a known fact that with increased capacity comes the decline in price. Worldwide PV manufacturing capacity has increased manifolds and research has also led to increase output per unit which has resulted in overall price decline.

Q. Do you want to add anything else that our readers want to know about your company?

A. Yes, we are a group of young people in business of making the world a better place by promoting use of new and sustainable source of energy, the Sun. Everyone who believes they can make a difference are welcome to join us.