Will be Happy to Collaborate with Indian Firms for EV Chargers: Rucas Wang

Growatt has developed a variety of EV chargers. We have been actively expanding our business across the globe and our EV chargers are getting popular in Europe. I would be happy to discuss collaboration with Indian clients that are interested in developing business in this sector. Over the past years, we have been increasing investments in India, including staffing, marketing, training and service. We have other investment plan also in India, says Rucas Wang, Regional Director, Growatt. In conversation with Manu Tayal, Associate Editor, Saur Energy International, Wang shared his views on various topics related to his company’s product offerings, future investment plans in India, new opportunities in the Indian market, CSR initiatives etc. Here’re the excerpts from that exclusive interview published in the Saur Energy International Magazine’s September 2019 edition:

Q. Tell us about the Growatt presence in India and its latest solar storage product. How many employees are working for the firm here?

Growatt has been active in Indian solar industry for more than seven years and by far over 50,000 Growatt inverters have been installed across India, mainly for rooftop projects.

For solar storage, Growatt offers a wide range of storage solutions for residential, commercial and industrial PV systems. Growatt SPH single-phase and three-phase hybrid inverters can work at both on-grid and off-grid modes, and they are also compatible with a variety of lithium batteries. For existing solar system, owner can choose to retrofit the system with Growatt SPA single-phase or three-phase inverter and turn it into energy storage system.

Right now there’re our 25 employees in India and 15 of them are after sales service engineers. We also have pre-sales team at headquarters to provide support for our sales team in India. So, it’s actually a very big team here.

Q. Till date, for how much capacity Growatt has supplied its inverters in India along with their type? What is the specialty of Growatt inverters in terms of key segments and size?

By far, Growatt has shipped over 450MW to India. The main inverters type range between 1kW to 80kW. Our advantage is on the rooftop sector. We’ve been focusing on business of rooftop solar for almost a decade. Our solutions for residential, commercial and industrial solar systems have been very well developed in terms of product line and technology. With this foundation, now we are also looking to develop the business of small and medium ground mounted solar plants.

Q. What growth opportunities do you see in the Indian Photovoltaic (PV) storage market in the next 2-3 years?

I’m optimistic about the solar storage market in India. The market has huge growth potential and once we have the support of policies and solar industry, we would see a storage boom.

Q. Tell us about your Research & Development (R&D) division. How do you ensure the quality and reliability of your inverters?

There’re over 200 professional and experienced R&D engineers in Growatt. The company has introduced the Five Quality Engineering Process (Design Engineering, Component Engineering, Testing Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering) to ensure product quality and durability.

Q. As government has recently taken many steps to promote EVs in the country, do you have any plans to bring Growatt EV chargers and other storage products to India?

Yes, Growatt has developed a variety of EV chargers. We have been actively expanding our business across the globe and our EV chargers are getting popular in Europe. I would be very happy to discuss collaboration with Indian clients that are interested in developing business in this sector.

Q. Do you have any future investment plans for India? If yes, by when?

Over the past years, we have been increasing investments in India, including staffing, marketing, training and service. We have other investment plan in India, but it can’t be disclosed at this moment.

Q. What are the services you provide to your customers post sale?

We provide a comprehensive range of services. We provide technical support, onsite service, online smart service, installation and troubleshooting training workshop. By building these service capabilities, we are able to prevent causing unnecessary issues and quickly diagnose and solve the problems for clients.

Q. Is Growatt working towards any Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in India?

Growatt has been committed to corporate social responsibility ever since its foundation. It applies responsible practices in the workplace and has been awarded the SA8000 certification. Growatt supports social and charitable causes through donations and has contributed to photovoltaic plants for poverty reduction and remote school with limited access to the grid.

In 2018, Growatt donated its inverter – Growatt 20KTL3-S – to the Indore Cancer Foundation Charitable Trust (ICF), a not-for-profit charitable organization in central India. The ICF was launched on December 27, 1988. It started with objectives to focus on the head & neck cancers, the most common cancers in adult Indian men, promote public and medical education, conduct clinical & basic research etc. To reduce carbon footprint and power the facility with clean solar energy, the ICF proposed an initiative of 20kW solar plant on the rooftop. After learning the program, Growatt donated a 20kW inverter and worked with other parties to contribute to this solar project.

Though we are not very familiar with CSR programs in India, as a global leading inverter company, we are committed to developing solar energy in India as well as contributing to social and charitable causes.