With the increase awareness towards solar & PV applications, market for PV inverter is witnessing a gradual growth but the market for PV inverters will decline in value from an estimated $5.7 billion in 2014 to approximately $5.2 billion by 2020, due to the rapidly decreasing cost of inverters.
As the primary point of interconnection between the generation and distribution sides of a photovoltaic system, the solar inverter directly affects multiple aspects of solar project development. Power cuts or Unavailability of power supply is a very common problem in all areas of the country and the best solution is promoting solar and renewable energy. Consumers are expecting their inverters to work for long hours and to carry the entire load in their households, factories and shops. The Inverters and UPS market in India has witnessed a growth in recent years on account of rising demand fueled by the demand and supply gap in electric power supply, expansion of industries and rising income levels of consumers. The market is highly fragmented in India; however it is dominated by large organized players such as Luminous Power, Mictrotek International and Su- Kam Power, which offer a wide range of home and industrial Inverters and UPS systems. The Indian Inverters market revenues have grown at a CAGR of 8.9% from FY’2010-FY’2014 and the UPS market revenues have 9.9% from FY’2010-FY’2014. According to the KEN research report, India Inverters market is projected to grow at an appreciable CAGR of 9.4% by FY’2019. With increasing disposable incomes of households, the sales of electrical equipments like ACs, Refrigerators, Televisions and Microwaves is expected to increase and inadequate power supply will drive consumers to opt for inverters. Indian UPS market is projected to scale new heights, expanding at a CAGR of 9.8% in FY’2014-FY’2019. This is due to shortage of high quality power, expansion of IT/ITE, Banking, Pharma and SMB segments and increasing income levels of consumers. Although Sevier power requirements have given Indian PV industry a boost but estimates shows that the PV market will decline in value from an estimated $5.7 billion in 2014 to approximately $5.2 billion by 2020, due to the rapidly decreasing cost of inverters. While the annual addition of solar PV systems is increasing globally every year, the falling cost of inverters continues to reduce the market size, with prices expected to decrease by 20-25% in the forecast period to reach $0.13 per Watt (W) by 2020. A solar inverter converts direct current electricity generated from solar PV panels into alternating current to facilitate both grid connectivity and use with appliances. The author’s Senior Analyst covering Power says: The average PV inverter price was $0.48 per W in 2010, following a sharp decline of around 60% over the preceding four years. The price will continue to drop as major tariff cuts impact installations and demand for PV inverters by 2020. Manufacturing costs of PV inverters will also fall with improving economies of scale.
Market Overview
– India Inverters Market is expected to reach INR 43,200.7 million by FY’ 2019
– India UPS Market is expected to reach INR 82,376.3 million by FY’2019
– Future Growth of India Inverters and UPS market is expected to be led by low availability of high quality power, expansion of industries and increasing income levels of consumers.
– The market leader companies are expected to maintain focus on expanding its battery manufacturing capacity and strengthen its presence in the solar power backup space.
Increasing power demand and Govt. failure to meet the have presented an opportunistic opportunities for companies making solar inverters. The Indian PV market has been growing and with the National Solar Mission, and increasing number of players eyeing the market, the solar inverter market shows promise. The push from the government on the PV market has propelled companies to expand their production. With the looming power crisis in India, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) came forth for alternative solutions in the state of Andhra Pradesh. To promote solar and help people battle the crisis, NABARD is providing 40 per cent subsidy for purchasing solar inverters. This also comes in line with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE’s) Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), which mandates for subsidy for solar lighting and solar PV systems of smaller capacity. NABARD, with MNRE as a facilitating agency entered into an agreement with Andromedar for subsidy. Constantly improving solar equipment technologies advanced manufacturing processes for production of hi-tech equipment and anticipated decline in equipment prices is projected to further drive the solar inverters market over the next five years.
Su-Kam Power Systems
Mr. Praveen Kumar Jain, Associate Vice President- Knowledge Centre
PV inverters have very promising future in India. PV Inverter is the most critical and essential component of Solar PV Plant whether off grid or on grid. In India there is a huge demand of PV inverters both in residential and commercial areas due to the following reasons:
• India is the third largest economy in Asia, and as India’s GDP grows so does the demand in energy. However, there is a gap in supply Vs demand and in most of the state there is a power deficient. Moreover energy usage per capita is increasing day by day making it necessary to switch to renewable energy.
• Further under the leadership of our Hon’ble Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, Govt. has initiated a lot of programmes and policies to drive PV solar. This government has set a target of installing 100 GW by 2020. This is a huge task and so is the scope of solar PV inverters. Solar has a huge scope in rural areas; large parts of rural India are still not electrified. These areas do not have the infrastructure for electricity from the utility grid. In rural areas independent DC system, mini-grid and micro grid are the good options in addition to conventional solar PV system. DC system has the additional advantage of saving 25 to 40% energy Vs AC system because energy losses in DC are much less than AC systems. Su-Kam has already installed more than a Lakh such system successfully. Talking about residential and commercial PV inverters he said, both segments have huge potential to dominate the Indian market. In residential areas like Delhi and Bombay where electricity supply is better, people are opting for On-grid solar system. This system is more economical as it does not batteries. The energy generated from the solar panels is directly supplied to run the load, and the surplus energy is fed back to the utility grid, thus the owner of the house also makes money. For instance, Su-Kam installed 1 MW on-grid solar system in Punjab Engineering College (PEC) in Chandigarh, Punjab. The on-grid system is helping the college run 50% of its total load through solar and is also making an annual saving of Rs. 1 crore for the college. Mr. Praveen further added on future on the industry as, this industry is going to grow very rapidly in the next few years. Not only will there be new solar installations but existing inverters will also be converted to solar inverters. Su-Kam has already initiated this move through its product SolarCon (Solar Conversion Kit) which can convert existing inverters to solar inverters. We have already installed SolarCon in thousands of houses across India. PV industry is also going to take a paradigm shift in terms of technology. Solar inverters will be more sophisticated in the coming years. Su-Kam is already developing highly sophisticated and user friendly solar inverters which is going to revolutionise this sector. Su-Kam has developed India’s first touch screen PV inverter (PCU) with MPPT technology. It has got all advanced features including user friendly touch screen, Wi-Fi connectivity and mobile app that helps you monitor data and performance of your system. System diagnostic also appears on the LCD display. Daily /monthly and yearly energy generation monitoring can be seen on screen of the PCU itself. Users can set all features and priorities through touch screen itself. Thus, the PV industry is not only going to grow in numbers but also in technology. Some of the cases done by Su-Kam are: UPNEDA Su-Kam has installed independent DC solar systems in 40,000 rural households across 19 districts and 1,800 villages in Uttar Pradesh. These villages did not have electricity prior to that. Each house has a solar photovoltaic (PV) on the rooftop that can generate electricity for three LED lights, one ceiling fan, and a mobile charging point in each of the rural homes. The system gives a backup of 8 to 12 hours a day and autonomy of 72 hours. The people of the village are now enjoying electricity 24*7 and quality of power is even better than conventional grid. Su-Kam sstrongly feel and recommend use of DC solar system wherever can be applicable because it has app. 30% less energy losses than its AC counterpart. Moreover DC appliances use less energy as compared to AC appliances for same energy output. Su-Kam has successfully installed more than 100000 units of DC solar system across India and other countries and now promoting such system with more confidence. KANNUAJ Recently Su-Kam completed a 250KWP mini-grid solar system in two villages in Kannauj, UP. Before the commencement of this project these villages never had electricity but now they will be completely powered by solar. It powers 60 LED street lights and provide energy to 450 homes and their 2,000 residents, as well as commercial establishments, two schools, a training center and a healthcare facility. Moreover, the solar system is also powering 15 submersible water pumps. Ccommercial settings that were highly dependent on alternate source of energy like Diesel Generators – which are not only costly but are also responsible for carbon emissions – are now turning to solar. Petrol Pump Take for example petrol pumps in India. Most petrol pumps are situated on remote locations on highways and rural/semi urban locations where power from grid is available for only 8-10 hours in a day, so pump owners use diesel generators which have high running costs. Thus, petrol pumps are a vast untapped opportunity for solar. We can give you an example of a petrol pump in Panipat, where Su-Kam installed a 10 KW solar system. Although the entire solar system cost him Rs 5.25 lakhs but he recovered it in less than a year.
Unipar Energy Systems (P) Ltd.
Mr. Shivaji Varma, Managing Director
Speaking on PV inverters demand in residential & commercial areas, Mr. Varma said, We are witnessing a steady increase in the demand for PV inverters for residential applications whereas the demand for the same in Commercial applications is at a state of neither increasing nor decreasing after the initial euphoria. Comparing residential and commercial inverters market he added, more or less, both residential and commercial segments are at par as far as solar industry is concerned. The medium and high net worth individuals are opting for Solar Power as an ‘alternate power’ or as a ‘go green’ measure. Commercial segments aren’t very excited since the grid power is costlier even now. There are two categories among those who are opting for solar power in the commercial segment. One, those who are investing in solar power generation of about 1MW to sell the generated power to the grid. The others are for self consumption and they are trying to get mileage from it in terms of reduced carbon foot print which results into carbon credit etc and to meet the newly introduced statutory obligations. The scenario will change soon and more users – both commercial and residential – are likely to adopt solar power for daily usage. The government push will be the main factor in this. Since the present government seems very serious with ambitious solar generation targets and with their measures such as solar power in all buildings to be qualified for smart / amruth cities, a percentage of total power consumption of heavy users to be changed to alternate power etc are surefire strategies to increase solar usage. This will eventually result in reduced generation costs and so subsequently, a vast percentage of the rest of the consumers will also likely opt for solar power. The fact that a lot of people switching to LED lighting will also be a fuelling factor since this will reduce the power requirements substantially and so the investment that will be needed to generate solar power will also come down. The Indian PV industry will see a major boom in next 2-3 years itself. The above reasons coupled with governments push for manufacturing in India will definitely bring a lot of focus to PV industry as such and specifically, both the inverters and PV panel manufacturing will thrive here. The technology that we use currently could be a dampener but that could be overcome with more investments coming to this industry Conclusion Solar Industry in India is blooming but tentative PV inverters cost is going down in-spite of increasing demand in both urban & rural. Coming years will definitely see a golden era of PV inverters market but will be influenced with cut-throat price competition. SOL
