‘Solar mission target challenging, but achievable’

Applied Materials is the biggest products and services supplier to manufacturers of semiconductors, flat panel displays and solar photo voltaic products all over the world. In India, the company is led by president & managing director Madhusudan V Atre. In a meeting and email interview with FE’s Rajiv Tikoo, he spoke about the role of the semiconductor industry in helping achieve the national solar mission target. Excerpts:

What are the implications of the national thrust on solar energy for the semiconductor industry?

Since a solar cell is nothing but one of the simpler semiconductor devices, it means that the semiconductor industry too stands to gain from the thrust on the solar industry in terms of the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem.

And what does it mean for Applied Materials?

If we look at just one aspect of the solar mission guidelines, there is a focus on domestic content. The solar modules used this year will have to be manufactured in India. Next year, in addition to solar modules, even solar cells used will have to be manufactured in India. To make these cells, equipment are needed, and we are equipment providers. That’s where we come in.

But the stipulation about the domestic content is for only the first phase of the solar mission. Isnt that too short a period for the domestic industry to make investment?

From the governments perspective, one of the aims of focusing on the domestic content is to ensure that hi-tech manufacturing capacity is set up in India. If it were not done, hi-tech manufacturing would never take off in India. Once you set up infrastructure for hi-tech manufacturing, then it will trigger more manufacturing, and also enable related industries like LED and flat panel display manufacturing.

Right now, the target for the first year is split equally between solar photo voltaic (PV) and solar thermal. Worldwide, including in India, PV is the most deployed technology. Since you operate in the PV domain, don’t you feel splitting the target equally limits you?

The pie is too big for all of us. It would be fantastic if bothsolar photo voltaic and solar thermalwere to install their share of the phase-1 target. With time, the progress shown by solar PV or solar thermal developers will be monitored, and suitable re-allocation might be done, if needed. The overall target is challenging, but its achievable.

But achieving the solar mission target requires much more. Do we have an ecosystem of manufacturing, R&D, standards, financing, marketing, and serviceto achieve this ambitious target?

Some aspects are reasonably in place. Let us look at each one of them. a) Manufacturing: there are already quite a few players in cell manufacturing; b) R&D/human resources: there are many groups in academia carrying out research in devices, materials and processes; c) Standards/quality: the government is enabling a lot on this front; d) Financing: it is a big stumbling block because you require a lot of upfront capital. Financing is not yet that mature for the solar industry in India; e) Marketing & acceptance: the awareness about the solar technology and its advantages has not yet reached the masses; f) Maintenance & service: this has been almost non-existent, but with the growth of industry we should see an improvement.

The government is offering a bouquet of incentives. But the solar industry is facing a tough time in countries like Spain, even with incentives. Going forward, what is the learning for India?

Spain opened its door too much too soon, and found it difficult to sustain the incentives. This resulted in reducing the capacity targets, as well as the feed-in-tariffs. Germany went about it more slowly, set up the infrastructure, and also enabled roof-top installations and feeding into the grid. Though it is also reducing feed-in-tariffs year-on-year, it is natural since the cost of cells and systems is steadily decreasing.

If we can learn from them, are clear about our vision, and focus on the important aspects of the ecosystemwe can be a world leader in market, technology, business, and manpower in the solar industry.

Source: The Financial Express

Published on 29 November 2010

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