Could you give our readers a brief introduction of your company? What are your plans for the current and next financial year?
Heraeus , founded in 1851 is a globally leading technology group and is one of the top 10 family-owned companies in Germany. In 2018, the group generated revenues in tune of €24 billion. With approximately 13,000 employees in 40 countries, the FORTUNE Global 500-listed company holds a leading position in its global markets.
The Heraeus Photovoltaics (HPT) is an industry-leading developer and manufacturer of silver metallization pastes for the photovoltaic industry. Our product has already been used in the manufacturing of 130 GW + Solar cell worldwide. We have a strong global presence with multiple manufacturing, R&D, sales, and application engineering locations to serve our customers across geographic & time -zones. The Heraeus SOL SERIES of silver pastes is specially formulated to provide higher efficiencies and wider processing windows, resulting in better yields and higher output for cell manufacturers. We have strategic collaboration and development agreements to help several leading Tier -1 solar cell makers achieve efficiency gains making us the leading player in terms of market share.
Since 2017, we have taken a leadership role in India with the help of dedicated local sales & application engineering team. Additionally, we have established dedicated resources in our Engineering & Technology Center in Singapore, to better tailor and further speed up customization of silver pastes for Indian cell manufacturers. As a result, we have solidified our position in the Indian market and have a better understanding of customers’ needs and intricacies of serving them as compared to our competitors.
In 2018, We have launched “ Beyond Paste Products “Electrically Conductive Adhesive (Hecaro®) for Solar Module Manufacturing to increase the overall efficiency without affecting the cost. We are planning to showcase these products in upcoming REI 2019 Expo in India.
What were your highlights in the current financial year?
Heraeus continuous to dedicate resources to help customers achieve a lower cost per watt by helping them take their efficiency to new heights. Earlier this year, we launched SOL9661 family of silver metallization paste which has received an overwhelming response from the market and boosted our global market share. The industry has appreciated the ultra-fine line print capability, excellent long-term printability, high open-circuit voltage (Voc), reduced laydown and overall higher efficiency generated by using the SOL9661 family of pastes.
Our new solution for upcoming technologies like HJT, Top-con has found great level of appreciation from World’s leading Research Institutes and we foresee wide level of acceptance at a commercial level in the next 2 years.
What have been the latest trends in demand for your products & services in India? Where do you see the next demand growth coming from?
In the last 2 years, we have been able to grab more than 50% market share working with largest Solar cell Manufacturers in India. We are also proud Receipt of “ Solar Cell Material Supplier of the year award 2019 “ by First Media. Indian market is driven by economics and with the recent drop in PV prices, the economies have become even more lucrative. We expect this to generate more investment in equipment and advanced technology. While PERC and Bi-Facial technology are very common globally, Indian players are now looking forward to adopting these technologies. These technologies boost solar cell efficiencies to 21-22 %. In general, cell efficiencies are increasing at a rapid pace and competing in the market requires increased R&D investments and quick turnaround time in cost reduction and optimization. This is only possible to achieve by working with companies such as Heraeus that are very innovative, present in the entire value chain and have a global footprint
With our industry recognized R&D expertise, a broad range of advanced products & solutions we expect to be the preferred technical partner for domestic solar cell manufacturers to rely on.
What is Heraeus’s perspective on the current state of the Indian solar market?
Starting from 2 GW in 2014 to 30 GW in 2019, what India has achieved in the last 5 years in terms of Solar Installations is phenomenal. Surely the target of 100 GW by 2022 looks achievable with the support of policy initiatives by the Indian Government. Using Tariff Based Reverse Auction mechanism to bring the LCOE to the level of (3.5¢ US) per kilowatt-hour has already made the world notice and follow the Indian mode of bidding.
While Import will continue to dominate the sector, we also see the significant capacity edition in local manufacturing based on demand created by measures like DCR related tenders, duties on imported material and incentive under “MAKE IN INDIA “initiative. Modules Manufacturing is already ramping up with the presence of multiple 1GW + size players, Cell manufacturing will follow the suit with Indian corporates even showing interest in setting complete supply chain products.
While this is happening, we are very optimistic about the long-term outlook of the Indian market. With our expanded manufacturing capacity and innovation force, we have enough bandwidth to support the ambitious plans of solar installation and manufacturing in India.
