Sofar Set To Expand In C&I and Utility-Scale Projects: Sunil Tiku, Sofar

Sofar Set To Expand In C&I and Utility-Scale Projects: Sunil Tiku

Sofar Solar, which entered the Indian market six years back with its inverters, is now diversifying its products and reach. The firm, which initially tried to penetrate the residential market and focussed more on Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) partnerships, is now trying to make inroads into the country’s Commercial and Industrial (C&I) and utility-scale projects. 

Sunil Tiku, Country Manager for Sofar Solar in India, in an exclusive interview with Saur Energy, said that for the last two years, the firm has been able to make a sizable presence in the two new markets but intended to expand. With the latest launch of its 350 KW inverter, the firm is anticipating new opportunities. 

“We launched our biggest solar inverter with a capacity of 350 Kilowatt (KW) for the Indian market at the REI 2023. We have also launched PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) for communication purposes, connecting up to 60 inverters. We have been in the Indian market for over six years and expanding into new markets,” Tiku told Saur Energy.

According to Tiku, the firm has supplied inverters with a cumulative capacity of up to 2.5 GW. In terms of numbers, it is close to 2.5 lakh inverters in India. “We were initially more focused on the ODM partnerships and residential market, but for the last couple of years, we have been focusing on the C&I segment and utility-scale market. Our major USP is our efficiency. It is more than 99 percent. In terms of generation, we offer a higher generation than our competitors. These virtues can help us make inroads into the new markets we are planning to penetrate,” he said.

When asked about its entry into the new markets, he said, “In the C&I and utility, we started in the last two years. Our share is not much now, but we are trying to make inroads into the sector with our products. We have teams across India who handle the distribution segment. We help them with technical and service support. They have their extended teams of service and sales engineers. Together, we are likely to extend our reach across the country.”

The company claims to offer solar PV inverters, starting from 1 KW to 350 KW. “We also have storage inverters for residential, C&I, and utility-scale segments. We also launched microinverters and large utility-scale storage systems.”

Tiku is optimistic about the government’s plan to increase the usage of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) for renewable energy projects in the country and the benefit of the same to the firm. “As of now, ESS business seems to be picking up. Many projects have been envisaged by the government for Round-the-Clock (RTC). The business avenues in the sector look promising,” he said.

He also said that the firm has been receiving queries from the C&I segment and expects more orders from the utility-scale projects.