Latest / Clean Power Hour / How Goldi Solar Brings Manufacturing Excellence to the US Solar Market with Bharat Bhut, Founder of Goldi Solar | EP168

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How Goldi Solar Brings Manufacturing Excellence to the US Solar Market with Bharat Bhut, Founder of Goldi Solar | EP168 · Clean Power Hour

• 0:50
  Bharat Bhut: quality, reliability or excellence, these words I feel these are the attitudes. So if I want to make anything, the quality is attitude, manufacturing excellence is attitude. So, when it comes to making solar panels, everyone can make us all up and around a row 18 dramaturgy club together you make a panel.
• 1:14
  intro: Are you speeding the energy transition? Here at the Clean Power Hour our hosts Tim Montague and John Weaver bring you the best in solar batteries and clean technologies every week I want to go deeper into decarbonisation. We do too.
• 1:28
  intro: We're here to help you understand and command the commercial, residential and utility solar, wind and storage industries. So let's get to it.
• 1:34
  intro: Together we can speed the energy
• 1:38
  Tim Montague: Today on the Clean Power Hour, we're here with transition.
• 1:42
  Tim Montague: Bharat Bhut He is the founder and director of a solar panel manufacturer called Goldi solar from India. We're here at RE plus welcome to the show Bharat really excited to have a solar company on the show. You know, one of the things I notice here have already pluses there's a lot of solar panel companies, right it's a very crowded space and it gets more and more crowded every year. Right. But give us a little background on yourself. How did you get interested in the solar industry? And, and what's what's going on Goldi
• 2:18
  Bharat Bhut: is the most myself, I'm the founder and director at Goldi Solar. If I talk about myself, I have been coming from village primary business of my father, my father is a farmer, we used to help in our primary disputes to help farming growing food. And I have done my primary education in village at government schools, then I moved to city and urban areas where I have done my schooling, you know, the mid education. And we, I have been in contact with many, many business people, we have the relatives, those who do big businesses, with the help of them, I have been able to secure my higher education from London, I've done my business administration on us from University of Greenwich in London. So, after after I finished my education, I went back to India and it was my passion to do something out of box. So, I have been given an opportunity to join our relative business of cutting and polishing of diamond making jewelry and selling diamond jewelry. So, this was a traditional business in all all people in my city we are doing so, I have been given opportunity, but not going into a traditional diamond what all my family members are doing, thinking out of the box, I was with one of my friends, we were looking after the new business diversification we have tried many businesses and we have selected the solar panel manufacturing in 2010 11 we were looking at some some new kinds of business and we see the solar manufacturing to be our future business, why solar manufacturing from a small town in India. Because when we when we analyze we need a raw material and then we process we make a product. So, when we see solar power, there is no raw material, if you want to generate electricity, solar electricity, there is no raw material. So we thought it is a future. Second, second thought was like we want to be into sustainable business. And we want to create the enterprise which sustain or which which which we can take from one generation to another generation. So there are many, many businesses available. But thinking a very long term approach thinking a business or enterprise can go from one gender to another, we entered into solar manufacturing, why manufacturing because our background was a manufacturing background and whatever we learned while growing up was all about the manufacturing growing, cultivating. So with the vision of you know growing with the vision of our taking, you know approach of out of box with the vision of doing something new and something different from what other people are doing. We started with small capacity of 10 Mega out in 2011 our current capacity is four Giga word with fully automatic production line.
• 5:45
  Bharat Bhut: We are one of the top company in India. We are the leading manufacturer in India. Applying globally. Since 2013, we are we have been exporting our solar panels to Europe, Africa and we have started our first export to US market in 2015. So this is the journey about the company.
• 6:07
  Tim Montague: The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by Denowatts. If you're a solar PV asset manager or performance engineer, you need better data and better business intelligence. With Denowatts digital twin benchmarking technology you get more accurate, efficient and faster performance measurement results.
• 6:23
  Tim Montague: The fourth generation Deno recently completed a technical review by DNV you can download the report at Denawatts.com.
• 6:31
  Tim Montague: That's D E N O W A T T S.com.
• 6:38
  Tim Montague: Now back to the show.
• 6:40
  Tim Montague: We're here with Bharat Bhut of Goldi Solar. He is the founder and director of an Indian solar panel manufacturing company. So what's going on in the Indian market? First and foremost, you know, we Americans are kind of obsessed with our own market because we have a good, you know, it's a 30 gigawatt market now in the US, right. And I had the pleasure of interviewing the founder of Borrego gentleman named Mike Hall, who was a very early adopter. He started a company in 2002. At that time, we were doing one megawatt a year in 2002. So 21, fast forward 21 years, we're not doing 30 gigawatts a year. So the market has exploded. But what's going on in Indian solar?
• 7:24
  Tim Montague: Because most Americans don't hear that much about the Indian market. How big is it? You're one of how many solar panel makers, that kind of thing. And then let's talk about why you come to our E plus, you've been coming to our E plus since 2015.
• 7:39
  Tim Montague: You said, so you've been in the US market now for eight years, but you're not quite a household name yet. So, but what's going on in India?
• 7:48
  Bharat Bhut: Yeah, India market, if we talk about I can take you to 10 years back, how the journey started in India market, when there was a national solar mission announced in India and they have set a target of 20 Giga watt to be installed. So, it was a foster national solar mission where the government started offering PPAs under the solar energy 2011 Well, you know, the story started from 2010 when we had the new government in 2014, they had a very different approach on clean energy, they have changed the total, you know, approach of the electricity of the energy and you know, about the whole energy infrastructure cut with the new government, they announced, you know, they we announced our national solar mission, and they given the new target of 500 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030. So, renewable energy means the solar wind and some hydro.
• 8:52
  Bharat Bhut: So, with the big vision of deploying renewable energy, solar energy, and there was more emphasize on making India. So on the on the demand side, they created a demand but deploying very strong policy, or the other side, on the manufacturing side, promoting making India providing benefits incentive the manufacturer, and giving a protection to the manufacturer, by having some of the tax protection on the input, government policy and the vision of the government boost Indian market from a 20 gigawatt to a larger two very big target to find it gig our current capacity installed capacity in solar is somewhere around 67 gigawatts as of now, and last eight to 10 years. Government of India now currently, more than 30 to 40 gigawatts of PPS has been awarded every year. On other hand, the deployment of 15 to 20. between 15 to 20 gigawatts of panels has been deployed every year. So this is the number India market I'm talking I've given the bigger number of utility scale that is a government PPA. If I talk about CNI segment, if I talk about the rooftop segment CNI segment is a private companies those who are those who want to lower their energy costs. So the that CNI segment market is more than eight gigawatt whereas the residential segment and agriculture segment there has been more than 250,000 solar water pump has been deployed in India in last three years. This year we have 160,000 solar water come to be installed as a company golden solar we have installed more than 20,000 Solar Water Pump for the farmers to pump the water for the irrigation. So
• 10:53
  Tim Montague: here in the US brought, we often talk about, like netzero goals, right urbanizing the economy and the Biden administration has has really put a stake in the ground saying, you know, we're going to clean the grid in the US by 2050. Right. And so what is going on in India though around the decarbonisation goals, and is like a renewable portfolio standard a tactic at all? You mentioned tax incentives. It sounds like there's some similar legislation happening to our IR IRA, the inflation reduction act right, which is incentivizing local manufacturing for example, right. That's why we see so many solar and battery factories now being built in the United States, but what is the what is the government's target for decarbonizing the economy in India?
• 11:45
  Bharat Bhut: Yes, see, in India, there are two factors which is driving the solar energy, one factor is in need of electricity, there are certain areas certain villages are there or backward areas, where there is a lack of electricity there is there is a lack of 24 hour electricity. So, one driving force is the you know, the necessity of electricity and solar is the cheapest form of electricity at present. So, the deployment of solar is for the necessity for the need. Second is for the net zero decarbonisation So, government is pushing corporates, banks, and, you know, the heavy polluting industries to have compulsory make their, you know, Net Zero policy, banks have been given a mandate to fund to decarbonize, you know, the companies, so banks have have a mandate to fund renewable energy projects. Earlier, they will not keen to pro or fund the projects. And government is incentivizing the resident residents. So that is a subsidy on residents. So they can, you know, 100% they can convert their electricity need. So, there are some ways
• 13:05
  Tim Montague: and but is there, is there a year goal for you talked about, you know, 500 gigawatts of solar or solar and wind being installed by 2030.
• 13:14
  Tim Montague: Yep. And what percent of the of the grid will be decarbonized?
• 13:21
  Tim Montague: When you achieve that goal? Is it? Is it 50%? Is it? Is it greater? Because, like the United States are also a very fossil fuel rich country? Right, especially with coal. Right.
• 13:31
  Tim Montague: And, and so it's a double edged right, you still and you're developing still Right, right.
• 13:40
  Tim Montague: So, fossil fuels have been a tremendous engine for development around the world and continues to be, but is is India setting an explicit goal of sunsetting the use of fossil fuels.
• 13:55
  Bharat Bhut: This 500 Kyoto Renewable Energy Target is a very medium and short term target, where our government already announced that by 2047 or 2050, there has been some, some years they have said the year that India will be, you know, reached to a net zero, they will be, you know, no fossil fuel will be used to generate electricity.
• 14:23
  Tim Montague: Okay. So tell us more about Goldi. You're here at already plus, exhibiting your products. What type of products are you do you have on display?
• 14:32
  Tim Montague: And you mentioned that you're you're manufacturing four gigawatts of panels now a year, what percentage of those are going to the Indian market and what percentage are going to go to the US market?
• 14:45
  Bharat Bhut: Yes, see, we are at our iplus The purpose is to you know, provide or supply a solar panels made in India, which you know, very good quality products. We are into business since last 60 years as a manufacturer of different products. And we started in 2011 with the solar panels, but our history is we are a manufacturer. So, our manufacturing excellence, we are bringing it to the US providing quality panels to serve the US market. Currently, we have displayed residential segment black modules for under 25 with a Topcon technology, which is a very latest technology, we have displayed the bifacial panels, which has been used into bigger power plants to solve the utility market. So, these are the products in India, we have been selling different kinds of the all these products may have been serving the Indian market.
• 15:41
  Bharat Bhut: But now we are entering. We have been supplying from last one year we have we have supplied more than 50 megawatt to the US residential Mark Okay,
• 15:52
  Tim Montague: so you've been supplying to the US residential markets. And now you're also going to start supplying to the utility market, the bifacial module and what's the most what's the maximum wattage of a of a bifacial panel that you're making?
• 16:05
  Bharat Bhut: As of now we are providing M 10 with a 570 watt peak by official panel panels.
• 16:11
  Tim Montague: Okay. Yep. M 10 That is a reference to the size of the
• 16:16
  Bharat Bhut: cell of the cell Yeah, yeah, it's a 182 mm cell
• 16:20
  Tim Montague: got it got it.
• 16:20
  Tim Montague: Well, what else should we know about Goldi you know you know, there are there many many solar panel companies right. Do you participate in any of the verification and testing programs of course, you have to go through UL testing probably, but like P bell or one of those analogous you know, P Bell is famous for their module reliability testing scorecard.
• 16:42
  Tim Montague: Module reliability scorecard, will tell us you know, how do you validate the product for the US market?
• 16:52
  Bharat Bhut: Yes. To enter into US market, we need to have a very stringent quality parameters and certification.
• 17:01
  Bharat Bhut: Last year, we obtained a cc UL and other like a fire test and the ul 50 test parameters. So our all the panels are certified with all the certifications required under the US authorities. In addition to that, our our company is certified with the DNV GL bankable bankability report. So we have we have obtained that report and the DNV GL audited our facility and certified us.
• 17:31
  Bharat Bhut: Our company has a bankable we have submitted before six months we have submitted our panels for the reliability testing to the PBE L. So it's a three times IC and there are more than four to five tests we have successfully passed. Within two months we will have the final report and the goal is will or will be on the list top you know top performance list.
• 17:58
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• 18:34
  Tim Montague: One of the conversations that I've been having is that you know solar prices solar module prices have recently collapsed right you can buy solar modules now for maybe 25 cents a watt in some places, how does that affect your business and what do you say to in that conversation like what should developers and asset owners be aware of, you know, in this in this circumstance,
• 19:02
  Bharat Bhut: school our business is very interesting business, we have seen the journey from last 11 years before COVID So, that business was you know, there was a price drop and the ruler prices rise, but it was very stable. And we can predict or we can forecast after the COVID You know, the world has been very uncertain in terms of the commodity made utility of the material used into making the solar panels as they are commoditize. So, silicon is been a major driving commodity aluminium copper the second price driving commodity for the solar panel. So, in last three years, it is very uncertain the price go down price go up my you know my take or my opinion on this one on the price is like you know I would like to tell the buyers that you know you contract with with with your suppliers in a floating prices like you know some of the commodity price we can link with the exchange if a customer wants to have the bigger contracts, then the best way is to have you know the commodity prices open and other prices is fixed. So, you have a stable price with a less fluctuations and you have a stable supply for the for the small buyers, it is advisable to have a short term approach while buying but the bigger companies cannot have a short term because they have to plan two years three years in advance. Yeah, so they have to have an open book, open book contracts, open book all tracks are there are 60% of the cost is is fixed and 40% is floated with a link to the metal prices. and these are the very successful approach into bigger contracts.
• 20:56
  Tim Montague: And so when you think about the US market, obviously, you're making a major investment in, in coming to the US coming to the shows do you go to other shows besides already plus
• 21:05
  Bharat Bhut: Eb, we do Ra plus we do InterSolar, North America, in US and Europe, we do interferer Europe, and we will do some local exports into Europe.
• 21:19
  Tim Montague: Okay. And you mentioned that you were selling 50 megawatts of residential product. I mean, what does success look like for you a year from now? How much? How many megawatts of sales will you achieve in the US if, if you hit your targets,
• 21:35
  Bharat Bhut: I have a plan to have around 600 megawatt panels to be deployed into us. And last year, we our capacity we increase this year. So the four Giga word, we want to divide that we want to sell at least 600 mag out to one geek out into a US and the rest capacity will be divided into Europe and India. This is how we have planned.
• 22:01
  Tim Montague: All right. Well, what else should we know? You know, I am no expert on solar panels, we do talk about them pretty regularly on the show with my, my co host, John Weaver, who's much more of a geek for for that technology.
• 22:16
  Tim Montague: But as you mentioned, it is a commodity you're using the best of breed technology today.
• 22:19
  Tim Montague: Right? Topcon so that's great.
• 22:23
  Tim Montague: That gives us confidence that there's a real product, they're going through the DNV certification, getting that letter process right so that gives you that gives developers and installers peace of mind that there's a quality product there what else though should I guess you know, when when you're buying modules, one of the things that that you buy for is a brand right he you know, brands that have long term recognition in the US what differentiates Goldi from you know, a Trina or a Qcells or alongI
• 23:04
  Bharat Bhut: Yeah, very good question. See, quality, reliability or excellence, these words I feel these are the attitudes. So, if I want to make anything to quality is attitude, manufacturing excellence is attitude. So, when it comes to making a solar panels, everyone can make us all up and around the row 18 raw materials to club together you make a panel. So, one panel is made with a similar material into one factory into another factory, that you know the both both are different products, why I talk about how we differentiate with others, we when we manufacture our panels, we choose a very good raw materials those raw materials are processed or they are examined into a laboratory before it goes to a production floor. While manufacturing we have more than 15 checkpoints a quality checkpoints we have a process analytical team. So, we do process analysis while the manufacturing we have controlled the ambience of the manufacturing floor every raw material matters into a solar panel, every process matters in the quality and reliability of solar panels, every temperature zone or ambience of the production fluid matters a lot.
• 24:38
  Bharat Bhut: So, the solar panel is a bundle of many many things. So Manufacturing Excellence comes raw material processes, how you manufacture, what enrollment, what kind of skill set you have, what kind of technology you are deploying while manufacturing.
• 24:55
  Bharat Bhut: So, at Goldy solar, we keep eye on all the segments, we have a three high quality processes, three I you know mattered. So, this makes solar panel very robust or reliable panels. We control our our production, we control you know, we we control the traceability of our our raw material, our panel wire mes software, we deployed mes software we deployed a process analytics, many many things that differentiate our panels with other so it is all about the excellence you when you look at the solar panels very simple, but when you when we you see the manufacturing facility and the process control, it is how you manufacture A scanner.
• 26:44
  Tim Montague: So, you know, one of the trends that we see is that Asian panel manufacturers are propping up factories in the United States, right? Is that something that you would even consider?
• 26:56
  Bharat Bhut: Yes, we are considering that, you know, if you have an opportunity to be manufactured in us, we will certainly come to yours. Wow.
• 27:06
  Bharat Bhut: Yeah.
• 27:08
  Tim Montague: And then when you think about the industry, do you have an aspirational peer? I mean, you, you said you got into solar around 2010. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So, you've been growing the company for 13 years, what is the future hold for Goldy What are your ambitions
• 27:28
  Bharat Bhut: we want to reach to tank our company with vertically integrated company into the energy space. So, we are doing a backward integration into solar cells. Next year, we are ramping up our modal production to six gigawatts by 2025. We will be entering into wafer manufacturing and later on into poly silicon, because without a vertically integrated company, to have such a big capacity of 10 Giga word and mood will not be any company will not survive if they are not vertically integrated. So, if we see in the world, the majority of the companies into solar business space, they are more and more getting integration, more and more get integrated into backward into forward. So, as the cold is cooler, we are we are growing both sides, we are going backward integration into forward integration. You already have a project company. We are currently, you know, I add some storage and future of the whole vertical integrated solar company is to enter into green hydrogen is entering toward green hydrogen space.
• 28:43
  Tim Montague: Oh, green hydrogen. Okay. So the whole
• 28:46
  Bharat Bhut: value chain of green energy or renewable energy? Yeah, you know, we are expanding in the motorway, as per my
• 28:56
  Tim Montague: suggesting that you're going to, you're going to expand beyond solar panels. Yes, yeah. Yeah, very interesting. I mean, it's not uncommon that you see, companies, solar companies that have inverters, even racking products, storage products, hydrogen would be electrolyzers.
• 29:17
  Tim Montague: The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by Denowatts. If you're a solar PV asset manager or performance engineer, you need better data and better business intelligence. With Denowatts digital twin benchmarking technology, you get more accurate, efficient and faster performance measurement results.
• 29:35
  Tim Montague: The fourth generation Deno recently completed a technical review by DNV you can download the report at Denowatts.com That's D E N O W A T T S.com.
• 29:42
  Tim Montague: Now back to the show.
• 29:49
  Tim Montague: Well, is there anything else in our last minute or two together that you'd like our listeners to know?
• 29:57
  Bharat Bhut: Yes, we have we have covered most of the things, but I would like to tell that you know into solar manufacturing is all about the quality, reliability and manufacturing excellence, we are bringing our manufacturing excellence and expertise to the US market. And we are here for the long term, we have been always aiming at a long term vision, whatever we do, we come from a background where our my grandfather and and the chairman of our group, he started his business in 1964 by cutting and polishing of the diamond. So you know when we when we manufactured or we cut polished diamond, we have to see very small small team, we have to be perfect. We have to be very quality conscious, then we can make any product. And it's all about diamond is all about trust, low affection. So we come from a background where we don't only make a product don't only sell the product, but also we bring the value system we inculcated value system into a manufacturing. We inculcated the value system into our supply chain. We value our suppliers equal to our customers, our suppliers are our partners. We want to be with the good people.
• 31:20
  Bharat Bhut: So we whatever we make, whatever we do, whatever we communicate is all about very positive and good. So we make a very positive and good aura. Net will bring a very positive business. Thank you.
• 31:38
  Tim Montague: You can find all of our content at clean power hour.com Please give us a rating and a review on Apple and Spotify. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. I love hearing from my listeners, check out our YouTube channel if you're not subscribed, we have a wonderful YouTube channel all of our content is on video and audio platforms. And with that, how can our listeners find you brought?
• 32:01
  Bharat Bhut: I'm on LinkedIn you can you can type my name and Goldi Solar. You can find me on LinkedIn
• 32:09
  Tim Montague: and the website is Goldisolar.com
• 32:11
  Bharat Bhut: Our website is www.goldisolar.com where you can find our product services and about the company
• 32:18
  Tim Montague: and that's G O L D I.com Goldisolar.com. I'm Tim Montague. Let's grow solar and storage.