Solarage India, a solar photovoltaic company based in Chandigarh, India, provides a wide range of solar power solutions including LED based solar power plan lanterns, street lights, home lights, AC/DC LED indoor and out door lights, solar power plants and innovative solar products.
Solar industry in India is facing a serious challenge due to low-grade products, says Surjit Singh, director of Solarage.
Singh suggests that government should provide subsidies only to solar power plants and not for other products like solar streetlights and heaters. According to Singh, the benefit of subsidy should be enjoyed by those who provide the best-quality products and services to customers, and not by those offering poor quality products. Several such low-quality products are flourishing in the market. They enjoy the benefits offered by the government, but they are not competent to offer the installation, maintenance and support to customers. The attitude of these manufacturers will have a serious impact on the future of solar industry.
“Based on our 16 years of solar experience we noticed that many companies make solar products which are low grade quality, and for layman every solar product is equal but when they use, they either don’t know how to use or they face problems with the product and say the solar products are not useful and not paid off,” says Surjit Singh, director of Solarage.
For this reason, the company is also taking the responsibility to educate customers before they install any solar product so that they understand the quality of the product and understand how to use it.
Singh urges that the Government of India should take further steps to accelerate the adoption of solar PV panels instead of solar water heaters because in India geysers are used only 3-4 months in winter whereas the demand for power exists throughout the year. Solar panels can generate power almost all days and help the government meet the power crisis in the country.
Another suggestion from Singh, who has been watching the growth of Indian solar energy industry for over a decade, is that government should approve ongrid system throughout India so that excess power fed to the grid shall be transferred to end users.
Solarage sees great opportunity in ongrid systems in the coming years. In addition to ongrid systems, the company also plans to focus on off-grid systems. A specialty of Solarage is that it uses high quality PCBs with SMD components to get good output in LED lighting. The technology also uses the constant current drive ICs with fully automated lighting luminare.
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