Axitec Energy's India Arm To Start Solar-Panel Manufacturing Soon

The Indian unit of Axitec Energy GmbH & Co. will commission its first global solar panel manufacturing plant in the country by December.

The Germany-based solar-panel supplier is coming up with two manufacturing plants, one each in Surat in Gujarat and Chennai.

"We are adding 600-megawatt manufacturing capacity (300 MW each) at both the plants," Tanmoy Duari, chief executive officer of Axitec Energy India Pvt., told BQ Prime in an interview.

Tanmoy Duari, CEO, Axitec Energy India Pvt. (Source: Company)

The company aims to supply around 450 MW in the domestic market, with the remainder be exported. It will use both the latest technologies in their panels and manufacture mono-PERC and N-Type i TOPCon panels, Duari said.

"We will produce the latest mono-PERC panels of 550-watt peak and N-Type i TOPCon panels of 585 WP in our plants," he said.

Axitec Energy expects the demand for domestic panels to pick up once the approved list of modules and manufacturers comes into effect from April.

The Union government had postponed ALMM by a year to March 31, 2024, to reduce the negative impact of twin measures of 40% import duty on solar panels from China and ALMM that did not approve any foreign suppliers of solar modules for government projects, including open-access projects. This affected India's solar power capacity addition target for 2030 as India did not have enough domestic panel-manufacturing capacity.

"Even today, the domestic manufacturers are dependent on Chinese suppliers for raw materials like cells and wafers, that holds quality of domestic panels and timely supply to ransom," Duari said.

A lot of developers, who are going ahead with placing orders with Chinese manufacturers to encash low panel prices ahead of the ALMM deadline, must remember it takes at least two–three months for commissioning of the project once they receive the panels, he said. "If they are not able to commission before the ALMM deadline, they will not get the ALMM benefits and projects may get stuck and become unviable."

Solar panel prices have dropped over 45% in the last six months to Rs 15/WP compared with Rs 28/WP in July.

"We have told Indian developers to import cells and we will make the panels for them, though it will be marginally around 45 paise costly compared with Chinese panels, but they will not face delay-related issues," Duari said.