Exclusive Interview With Mr. Saurabh Bhandari, Founder & CEO, SolarMaxx

Tell us a little about SolarMaxx and its products and solutions.

SolarMaxx, established in 2008, is a leading manufacturer and supplier of high efficiency Solar PV Modules suitable for utility scale power plants as well as rooftop solar. SolarMaxx is a proud leader in its regional market of Rajasthan and is rapidly expanding across India.

SolarMaxx believes in manufacturing in the markets we serve. SolarMaxx Solar PV Modules are a renowned quality offering that undergo multiple stages of stringent quality checks and tests during production before being packed for delivery. Needless to mention our modules are duly tested and approved and hold required IEC and TUV certification from world’s one of the most prestigious certification agencies. SolarMaxx Solar PV modules are also MNRE tested and are an eligible offering for various state and national tenders.

SolarMaxx Solar PV Modules are available in wide range of sizes and wattages. Even though our main focus is to produce high efficiency 325+W modules for utility and rooftop sectors, we can also cater to customised requirement for modules from 40W and above.

While SolarMaxx Solar Panels are a leading quality offering, SolarMaxx EPC services are revered as amongst the best in after-sales and O&M besides being amongst the fastest to deliver rooftop as well as ground mounted projects. Over the past decade we have attained expertise in EPC with in-house design, engineering and procurement capabilities.

Please tell us about your manufacturing process, sourcing, quality and innovation.

We are progressively taking steps towards maximum automation in our manufacturing process to evade human intervention as much as possible. This has certainly enhanced “quality” yield of our modules. The wastage has reduced while uniformity of output has increased. This has quite clearly prompted an increase in quality of the product. We focus on efficiency and are producing high wattage panels. We recently introduced half-cut cell panels to increase the output by reducing the cell to module losses. This will certainly lead to reduction of overall project cost of developers and EPCs alike. With the utilization of certified, excellent class raw material, particularly PID resistant cells, our performance is guaranteed overtime. Reasonable price, performance and prompt delivery are our basic strengths.

We prioritse sourcing of extremely high quality raw material from among the most renowned global brands. Since solar is our main bread and butter and not a side project to other business interests, our production house srtongly focuses on quality. Our size helps us keep our cost overheads low without compromising on the quality of our product. With increased automation in production, we keep our product offering consistent which is very important for our clients that are mostly renowned EPCs,  developers and investors.

What are your plans for Rooftop Solar Market considering Government Target of 40GW rooftop solar by 2022.

Govt. of India has set a solar installation target of 100GW by the year 2022. 40GW out of this 100GW is planned for rooftops. I believe Rooftop Solar is an excellent solution for India’s power problems. Rooftop Solar in India is bound to grow at a high rate especially with increased awareness of the associated benefits. Businesses and institutions have understood the economics of Solar rooftop and have started to deploy solar panels on their factory sheds and office roofs. Subsidies have helped making rooftop solar attractive to residential users. It is to be seen how they may react once the subsidies are over, but the overall scenario looks exciting.

There are some obvious challenges. DISCOMS are not particularly in favour of implementing or continuing net metering schemes as this directly affects their revenue. RESCO model especially in the private sector is still considered risky.

As a module manufacturer, we are aggressively looking at supplying our modules to EPC companies for rooftop installations. At the same time we are actively looking at expanding our EPC business across India with a strong focus on rooftop installations.

Tell us more about SolarMaxx.

A small idea from a milk vendor led to the foundation of this current solar venture, SolarMaxx, in the year 2008.

SolarMaxx indulged in distribution of Solar lamps with an objective to light up the rural India before diversifying into manufacturing of Solar PV Panels, Solar Water Heating and related Solar Energy equipment. SolarMaxx played a pioneering role by taking Solar to the residential sector in its earlier years when Solar was perceived as a very expensive and rather an experimental commodity. Having successfully launched residential Solar solutions in the early stages of SolarMaxx, we introduced commercial and institutional solutions. By 2012-13, we were the leading Solar brand in Rajasthan with reasonable presence in neighbouring states.

It was only in late 2014 that we decided to commence manufacturing of Solar PV Modules and set up our manufacturing facility in record time of less than 6 months. Today, SolarMaxx solar modules are amongst the most popular modules in our regional market. Our modules have acquired all required certifications and approvals such as IEC, TUV and MNRE.

Our EPC vertical has completed several small to large rooftop projects, utility scale MW projects and a number of off-grid projects across North India.

How do you ensure quality of your product and services?

SolarMaxx Solar PV Modules are TUV and IEC certified from a globally recognized agency. Our modules have gone through a series of stringent tests to get these certifications and approvals. We maintain MNRE approvals for most of our Solar modules that are required for various state and national tenders.

Other than getting and renewing these certifications time to time, we stringently control each phase of our manufacturing flow to prevent production of a sub-standard or low-quality module. Production of SolarMaxx solar PV modules is done in a dust free, air-conditioned environment to avoid any outside particle from entering the manufacturing cycle. Our raw material is sourced from renowned and universally prestigious providers. Each raw material is IEC/UL certified by reputed agencies. Other than checking their certifications, we test each raw material in-house before sending them into production. Our in-house testing encourages us to isolate and along these lines dismiss any inadequate or low-quality material to guarantee every module is of the ideal quality. Every module that we create is visually, technically and electrically tested, plus sorted and packed.