Gaurav Mathur is the most senior executive at Trina Solar India and oversees the company’s business in India as well as other South Asian markets. he has been with the company since October 2011, manages a diverse team of people in India involved in sales, marketing, customer and technical support.
Techiexpert Team had an opportunity to talk to Gaurav Mathur
About Trina Solar?
Founded in 1997, Trina Solar is the world-leading global PV and smart energy total solution provider. The company engages in PV product research and development, manufacture and sales; PV project development, operation, and maintenance; smart micro-grid and multi-energy complementary system development and sales, as well as energy cloud-platform operation.
In 2018, Trina Solar launched the Energy Internet of Things (IoT) brand and initiated the Trina Energy IoT Industrial Development Alliance and New Energy IoT Industrial Innovation Center with worldwide leading enterprises and research institutes. The company is committed to becoming the leader of the global smart energy industry
We (Trina Solar) have received a top rating in the latest annual module and inverter bankability report issued by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). With this report, Trina Solar is now the only module manufacturer to be rated as fully bankable for four consecutive years by 100% of the experts participating in the BNEF survey
We (Trina Solar) have recently announced the mass production of N-type i-TOPCon double-glass bifacial modules. The best front-side power output of a module with 144 half-cut i-TOPCon cells reaches 425 Wp, and the best module efficiency reaches 20.7%
In the Asia Pacific, Trina Solar collaborates with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Australia National University (ANU) to drive research in solar energy technology such as PERC cells. Trina Solar has also helped to fund both “blue sky” and applied research at the universities. While the former set the foundation of a successful industry, the latter refines its technological processes and are thus equally important in advancing the solar energy industry.
So you can see part of our strategy is to work with leading scientists around the world to develop higher efficiency, more reliable modules so we can stay two steps ahead of the competition.
Besides developing higher efficiency modules, we also offer our clients fully-integrated solutions under the brand name of “TrinaPro”. TrinaPro is a wrap-up offering; of Solar Modules, Trackers/structure and Inverter; for utility-scale solar plants with an additional value proposition to improve the Levelized cost of energy (LCOE).
To deliver the utmost quality product offering, Trina acquired Nclave, a Spanish technology company that is a world leader in tracker technology for the solar industry. Our solar modules and our TrinaPro ‘all in one’ solution is admired by most leading lenders and we feel proud to say that Trina brand is one of the most bankable solar brands in the world.
About photovoltaic in detail for our users?
Photovoltaic (PV) solar technology converts light into electricity using semiconducting materials in a solar module. When light strikes a solar cell, electrons gain photon energy to move. This movement is made in a unilateral direction because the semiconductor material is doped with chemicals selected by the manufacturer. A typical solar cell, many of which are strung together in a panel-shape to create solar modules, use silicon.
Because there are no chemicals being released into the environment, or fuel being burnt to produce the electricity, PV solar produces no CO2 emissions.
How Trina is different? What is your USP?
Trina Solar is one of the oldest private solar companies in the world and is one of the most reputed brands in the world.
It produces top quality products and has huge capability for product innovation. Trina is also a truly international company. We have more than 13,000 employees from different countries and cultures.
We have cumulative shipments of more than 40GW. In terms of India, we have supplied 4.2GW of solar PV panels.
Our modules not only produce clean energy but are also produced with a commitment to sustainable development goals.
Last year, our manufacturing and R&D operations achieved “zero” carbon emissions as their energy costs were offset by the clean energy produced by Trina Solar-owned solar plants.
We are also members of organizations such as PV CYCLE, to ensure our modules produce as little end-of-life waste as possible.
How is Trina utilizing cloud/IoT infrastructure?
An industrial innovation center focusing on new energy Internet of Things (IoT) was established at Trina Solar’s headquarters in Changzhou, China on August 17 2018.
The center partners with leading companies and research institute both in and outside of China to create an innovation platform for the research of new energy IoT through establishing innovation systems such as new energy power generation and storage technology, as well as the technology of smart terminals, energy management, and energy cloud.
Establishment of the new center represents a new milestone for Trina Solar’s development strategy of becoming a leader in the global energy IoT market
On 26th February 2019, Trina Solar R&D Center of New Energy IoT was officially established in the Shanghai Zizhu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone. This is another major initiative of Trina Solar in the field of new energy IoT after founding Trina Energy IoT Industrial Development Alliance and New Energy IoT Industrial Innovation Center.
New Areas if they are looking to expand?
We are constantly innovating. We are offering more integrated solutions for customers in the: utility, commercial, industrial and residential segments. We have also taken the lead in the world of energy Internet of Things (IoT). The ability to monitor the performance of solar installations in ‘real-time’ using IoT technology and to be able to do predictive maintenance on solar installations using data mining and IoT technology is crucially important.
By offering highly efficient integrated systems that make use of IoT technology, it helps to reduce the levelized cost of energy for customers through shorter installation and design periods, as well as lower operations and maintenance costs.
This will aid the government’s plans to expand solar in India, ensuring the provision of reliable, low-cost energy to local communities. Local workers will also get more high-tech, higher-quality jobs in installation, operations and maintenance.
