At Renewable Energy India Expo 2025 (REI 2025) in Greater Noida, TaiyangNews Head of Technology Shravan Chunduri interviewed Manjunath Jyothinagara, Managing Director of UHP Technologies Private Limited, to discuss trends in India’s rapidly expanding solar manufacturing sector and the role of utility solution providers.
Jyothinagara noted that the solar manufacturing industry has grown sharply in a short period, with production lines scaling from tens of MWs to multi-GW capacities. This growth has created opportunities not only in cell and module manufacturing but also across supporting areas, including equipment engineering, utilities, consumables, gases, and chemicals. He highlighted that much of this ecosystem did not exist at a meaningful scale just 2 years ago, but now it does.
He acknowledged strong pressure from Chinese suppliers, especially on capital cost. However, he pointed out that lower upfront costs often lead to higher long-term losses due to delays, downtime, and limited after-sales support. In large solar manufacturing lines, even a single day of disruption can result in significant financial losses, making reliable local support critical.
He observed that many new investors initially focus mainly on returns and minimizing capital expenditure, without fully understanding the importance of utilities in cell manufacturing. According to him, optimal project economics are typically achieved at capacities of around 3 to 4 GWs, where utility costs can be better optimized. Several manufacturers that initially planned smaller capacities have since revised their plans to larger integrated setups after reassessing utility requirements.
Jyothinagara also emphasized that while utilities are often viewed mainly as a CapEx item, their design has a major impact on operating costs. Power consumption for cleanrooms, exhaust systems, compressed air, and chemical handling significantly influences overall factory OpEx, making proper engineering and design essential.
On innovation, he said UHP introduces new solutions regularly. Most recently, the company has localized dry chemisorption technology for toxic gas abatement through collaboration with a German partner. UHP now designs and manufactures the automation and mechanical systems locally and customizes chemisorption granules for different gases. This, he claims, has enabled the company to offer the solution at roughly half the cost of previously imported systems.
Manjunath Jyothinagara was among the speakers at the TaiyangNews Solar Technology Conference India 2025 (STC.I 2025), held in April this year. TaiyangNews will organize the second edition of this India-focused conference on February 5-6, 2026, in New Delhi. Registrations for STC.I 2026 are now open here.