12,000 visitors, 800 conference attendees and 240 exhibitors: October 21 marked the end of the hugely successful eighth Intersolar India, India’s largest exhibition and conference for the solar industry, which was held at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai. The number of visitors was 10% higher than at the previous year’s event, and the number of exhibitors increased by an impressive 20%. The positive development of the Indian solar market was noticeable at the exhibition. Businesses and investors made the most of the opportunity to network, and numerous agreements and collaborations were initiated. The organizers also reported positively on the conference, where around 800 attendees discussed India's solar industry with 122 speakers.
Since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared energy a top priority, the Indian market has been showing great momentum. By 2022 the country aims to achieve an installed photovoltaic capacity of 100 gigawatts (GW). At the conference session titled India’s Emerging Domestic Market – A Reality Check, Priyadarshini Sanjay of Mercom Communications stated that the capacity is currently at 8.6 GW. According to the consultancy firm Bridge to India it is at 23 GW when projects currently under construction are included. So the country has ambitious goals, and the atmosphere in India is one of radical change. This year Intersolar India gave the industry a significant boost and offered the perfect opportunity to discuss upcoming steps, opportunities and challenges.
Intersolar India was officially opened by Dr. Robert Habeck, Minister of Energy, Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Areas for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. He praised the development of India’s renewable energy industry and emphasized that exhibitions like Intersolar India help to achieve ambitious goals, as they act as an industry platform and bring together all of the key stakeholders.
Smart renewable energy, which refers to the combination of energy generation, storage, grid integration and energy management, was a very popular topic at the exhibition and sparked animated debate at the exhibition forum in particular. At the session Smart Renewable Energy: Microgrids – Serving Unconnected Remote Village Communities to Grid Connected City Consumers, experts shared their experiences of bringing electricity to small villages through microgrids. The latest developments in the industry were presented at the session Smart Renewable Energy: Electrical Energy Storage (ees) – What are India’s Drivers for ees Solutions?
Shared Booth HUSUM Wind India
This year also marked a first for Intersolar India – the debut of a cooperation with the internationally renowned exhibition HUSUM Wind, which proved to be a great success with the exhibition guests. The shared booth gave visitors the opportunity to learn more about wind energy and its implementation in the Indian market. There was a lot of interest, as numerous Indian firms operate in both the solar and the wind power sector.
Lively discussions at the Intersolar India Conference
The accompanying conference took place in parallel on October 19 and 20. A central topic was private and industrial rooftop systems. In the session Commercial & Industrial Rooftop Systems – Field Experience in India, Dr. Nalin Shinghal, Chairman and Managing Director of Central
Electronics Ltd., explained that rooftop systems will achieve grid parity in the near future. This is an important step, since although India plans to install 40 GW of solar capacity on private rooftop systems, its current capacity is just 800 megawatts. Sukesh Kumar Jain, Power Secretary for the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, told the session titled Residential Rooftop Systems – System Design and Field Experience in India that the city will play a central, pioneering role. By 2020, he said, 1 GW of private rooftop systems should be installed there, with a further GW installed by 2025. There was also discussion around the challenges facing the expansion of private rooftop systems. Arvind Karandikar, Managing Director at Nexus Energytech Pvt. Ltd., mentioned that the financing of these systems must be structured more simply and that business models in this area need better support.
ees India
In 2016 ees (electrical energy storage) India again took place in parallel to Intersolar India. At the companies’ booths, numerous visitors learned more about the energy storage sector. This event complements the exhibition perfectly, because batteries are essential for India’s journey to a renewable future.
Intersolar India 2017 takes place from December 5-7, 2017 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai.