EQ In Exclusive Conversation With Ms. Juhi Marwadi – Director, Pixon Energy
EQ In Exclusive Conversation With Ms. Juhi Marwadi – Director, Pixon Energy
- What are your views on proposed BCD on Modules & Cells import in India?
The proposed BCD on the modules and cells import in India is a very calculative measure undertaken by the Indian government. Enough time margin is provided to not hinder the already bid projects. Considering the short-term impacts of BCD implementation, the overall module prices may hike by 12.5% which is very less than the new imported module prices that would cost about 40% more. Thus, the local demand will certainly get a boost. It is a green signal for solar manufacturing industries like PIXON. Government is also providing incentives of about 50% for DCR content in modules. Thus, the long-term impact would be very positive and favour the entire manufacturing industry as well, this time.
- What are your views on World Market Scenario and its impact on pricing and availability of modules in this year and next year? Any expectations.
The world is going through challenging times. The pandemic has got humanity on one page. There are unexpected second & third waves and subtly declared lockdowns pan India causing a lot of labour availability issues and increased transportation costs. The different emergency guidelines stated by the international governments also cause hindrance in the imports of both solar modules and raw materials.
A huge gap between the demand and supply has been witnessed, in consideration to the availability of modules. This shall certainly hike the module prices in India and also in the global market. First time in past 5 years, the module prices are likely to go up by 15-20% approximately.
- Kindly comment on policies and regulatory aspects like BCD, BIS and ALMM.
PIXON stands for Quality & Integrity. We always abide by the policies and regulatory aspects pertaining to the Quality of products like BIS & ALMM. All our products are made considering not just national standards, but also meeting the global standards of quality.
The ALMM might not show direct benefits to manufacturing segment, yet would have indirect benefits to regulate the quality of modules getting installed in the solar power plants in India.
The only thing we expect from the government policy is clarity and tenure of policy to sustain the market fluctuations and rates.
- Describe about your company in terms of manufacturing capacities and growth chart.
PIXON manifests into both – solar product manufacturing and solar turnkey EPC solutions. The colossal industry is spread on 65,000 sq. m of land. The company is equipped with the state-of-the-art turnkey manufacturing facility of 400 MW capacity for module production, sourced from Europe. It is also ramping up the manufacturing lines for EVA films (800 MW) and other raw materials to regulate quality aspects.
The company is pacing at a faster growth rate. Even after complete lockdown witnessed last year, the company could scale up its operations and recruitment drive to expand by ten-folds.
- What are your plans to ramp up your manufacturing base in India in the light of the proposed BCD?
As already mentioned, we are scaling up to increase our product range by including in-house manufacturing of raw material like EVA Films, Backsheets, etc. With stable policies and aiding regulations like BCD, we would also increase our plant module production capacity from 400 MW to 1 GW. The setting up of a NABL accredited quality lab is also in pipeline. With each plan and setup, the aim is to regulate quality of our products, especially the solar modules.
- Please describe in brief about your company directors, promoters, investors, its vision & mission.
PIXON is a venture of the Marwadi Group, imbibing consumer trust since past 27+ years. The Board of Directors come from diverse backgrounds of Engineering, Finance and Import-Export. They carry more than a decade of business expertise and with their vision and analytics, optimally direct the company. The company’s technical mentors also got an experience of more than 25 years in solar industry. The BOD also holds space for young and talented entrepreneurs.
The mission of the company is to adopt technologies to harness solar energy, deploy the usage of solar energy and thus, contribute to mother Earth to attain global climate sustainability. While attaining this mission, PIXON sets its vision to be a global leader in Solar Industry by providing efficient Solar Energy Solutions.
- Kindly highlight your product, technology & company USP’s and distinctive advantages.
PIXON houses European sourced technology turnkey manufacturing line that requires minimum human intervention. The prime USP of our machinery is that it is a complete aggregate from a single vendor, unlike the cherry-picking concept for the entire manufacturing line. Thus, the machinery provides with distinctive advantage where the downtime and sync issues are minimal with accurate yield of efficient modules. This is the only machinery setup of its kind in India.
PIXON always focuses on the value addition to its customers. The key is to manufacture solar modules with high energy density advantages and low LOC benefits, thereby reducing the cost of renewable energy. The PIXON modules yield high output power and are efficient & robust. The eminent and reliable choice in the market.
- What are the top 5 markets for your company in the past, present and future?
The top 5 target markets apart from India are Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Africa and Australia.
- How much is your R&D budget as % of your sales / profits?
PIXON believes that in order to make a lot of sales & profits, one should not invest in R&D with respect to their profit but other way round. One should set specific percentage from the capital revenue for Research & Development in order to keep at par with advancing technologies and sustaining profits.
We started with allocating the 10% of our capital revenue for the Design & Development Vertical.
- What are the new technology innovations in Solar Modules, Logistical aspects usage of larger format modules?
The new larger format modules are able to sustain same voltages as the regular size modules using M2-M3 solar cells. It is a very effective cost-cutting innovation as there is significant deduction in the overall BOS cost. However, it is difficult to commercialize its production in many countries, including India.
- Comment on the technology road map in terms of 1500 V, Double glass, BiFacial Cells, PERC Technologies and other upcoming game changing technologies.
There have been a lot of research and development going on across the globe for solar since a decade or more. It has finally reached commercialisation stages and being accepted by masses globally. A lot of innovation are coming each day. The modules have already been upgraded to 1500 V from 1000 V. The usage of Bi-facial modules using Bi-facial cells would also have its own perks. Aesthetically designed solar shingles is also an interesting innovation for niche market. Technologies like HJT (Heterojunction cell modules), IBC (Interdigitated Back Contact cells), MBB (Multi Busbar cell modules) are also making showing good results. However, all these solar module innovations need to pass thorough tests over the time and meet commercialisation stages before making substantial space in the market.
