Trina Solar to introduce efficient one-stop solution residential solar installation kit in SL

Trina Solar, the leading total solution provider for solar energy around the world, just launched their products on a global market, and are to introduce an efficient one stop solution residential solar installation kit in Sri Lanka, stated Trinahome Asia Pacific and Middle East Regional Sales Manager Daphne Chee Chin Yee, in an interview with Daily FT yesterday. 

By the end of 2017, Trina Solar had delivered more than 32 gigawatts of solar modules worldwide, contributing to more than 10% of global market share, which makes Trina the world’s largest solar module supplier. 

Trinahome is a complete residential solar rooftop kit with modules, inverter, grid box, cables and mounting structure. The system is in the configuration of 1.5kilowatt, 3 and 5kilowatt-single phase, 5 and 10kilowatt-three phase and is available for all roof types, including flat and pitched structures. 

In this interview, Chee shares her insights and industry observations on Sri Lanka’ potential in the market, and how the country will benefit from the full fledge residential solution kit that Trina Solar will be offering. 

Following are excerpts: 

By Shannon Jayawardena

Q: How and when did the Trinahome Business Unit come about, and could you share a small background on the company’s profile?

A: Trina Solar itself is a solar manufacturing company. We started in 1997, about 20 years ago, and was founded by Jifan Gao, our CEO. In the past 20 odd years, we have raised over 30 gigawatts models which is equivalent to 30 billion panels, and we have over 20 factories all around the world. We have a total of over 14,000 staff members and we ship globally. I am from the Asia Pacific and Middle East region, so Sri Lanka is a part of this region. Previously, we were into typical model manufacturing but we have shifted our focus into providing solutions for businesses. Other than providing module panels, now we provide Trinahome kits, which is a residential kit system where you can install on your roof at home with all components ready. It just needs to be installed, and it comes with modules, mounting structures, invertors, cables and all the monitoring systems. To us, it’s like a revolution since our beginning. It’s like when we first had laptops, people used customisation with certain kinds of hard disks and memories, and now we have all evolved to one certain laptop. Similarly we see that with home solutions, kit systems have evolved to a global brand rather than a local one. This also provides assurance to the end customer, whereby the quality is controlled within the company. Trinahome has just launched overseas this year, and our product was made ready for Sri Lanka just last month. So Trinahome itself we started over two years ago in China, and have sold approximately 15,000 units. Sri Lanka is one of the first countries that we looked into, and we see that there is a very good market here with great potential. The country has a very good payback period with e-servings and the clean lifestyle that people are heading towards. 

Q: What are a few of your main focus areas in introducing Trinahome system solutions to Sri Lanka?

A: We started Trinahome in Sri Lanka this month, because the product was just ready last month. We are going to partner with our channel partners, JLanka, to sell products to our end customers here. Here we see that there is a very good payback period within five years for the systems to get a positive outcome.

Q: What was the initial investment, and how has the company grown since?

A: Trina Solar was a listed company on the New York Stock Exchange, but were delisted last year because the company was privatised, and is now moving into taking products to application for IPO for our local China Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Q: What are a few of the key markets that Trinahome is currently striving in?

A: Trinahome is already launched in China and India, and in Q3 of 2018, Trinahome is focused on entering the markets of Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. We are also looking at the European and American markets, and Trinahome will soon be a global residential solar solution providing company. 

Q: What are some of the projects done by the company, both in Sri Lanka and around the globe?

A: Around the globe, we have installed a total of 30 gigawatts, and our major market is China. In this Asia Pacific and Middle East region, our key markets are India and Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka is now picking up from the roof top segment with the policies that were recently introduced, which is very favourable to the solar industry.

Q: What’s your opinion of the current residential solar market in Sri Lanka?

A: We see great potential of residential solar in Sri Lanka. The Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy has launched a new community-based power generation project titled ‘Soorya Bala Sangramaya’ (Battle for Solar Energy), in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Lanka Electricity Company (LECO) to promote the setting up of small solar power plants on the rooftops of households, religious places, hotels, commercial establishments and industries. It is expected to add 200 MW of solar electricity to the national grid by 2020, and 1000 MW by 2025 through this intervention. Under this program, the consumers will have options to generate and use electricity in their premises. In case of electricity in excess of their requirements, they can sell the excess to the national grid or bank it for later use. According to the electricity usage, the customer can select a preferred option from the following three schemes: Net Metering, Net Accounting and Net Plus.

Q: Why have you entered the local market, and what potential does Sri Lanka have in terms of renewable energy and the solar industry?

A: In Sri Lanka, we see a very attractive solar policy and net metering, net accounting in place. The recent announcement of the solar program, as mentioned earlier, is very attractive for the market and there will be more and more adapters of solar systems in the market. The electricity tariff in Sri Lanka makes the payback of the system very attractive as well.

Q: What do you think will be the biggest challenge, and how do you plan on staying ahead of all the other existing companies?

A: Trinahome solution is actually an early adapter, and in fact we are the first to provide this kit solution in the Sri Lankan market, where all the components and solutions will be provided by Trina. All long, this Trina kit system is done by our distributers, assembling different brands and different kinds of components. We are the early birds of the new solutions, in which we see a very large potential, like our home-based market in China. 

Q: What does Trina offer that is different and special, compared to the several other solar companies in Sri Lanka?

A: We provide one stop solutions to this residential kit, where we also provide warranty for the whole system. All the single components are from Trina and if there are any issues and our end use customers don’t know which supplier to go to, we provide single contact and insurance. The other important thing is that Trina is a Tier 1 company and in the solar industry this is salient. Based on quality there are certain criteria and this further ensures quality assurance to the end customers.

Q: What are the key advantages that Trinahome offers in rooftop solar installation?

A:  We provide our complete solution kits, and our partner JLanka will be helping us to install. So what we provide is certification training to our channel partners and installers, to provide structured field training, and also provide knowledge on the after sales process, on how they can actually bring the quality to the installation for the end customer. Trinahome is one complete solution with an on-grid solar energy system, converting DC electricity into 240v AC electricity with net metering benefits, and is the most economically viable system which does not require battery power. The system can also feed surplus energy to the national grid for government rewards, and saves on electricity costs and diesel consumption. 

Q: How did you get into the partnership with JLanka?

A: We started our partnership a long time ago, since the start of JLanka. We have come a long way with them, and they are our main distributors here. We have had a very good partnership with them, and with our close partnership in providing support for pre-sales and after sales, we will continue to have a strong and steady partnership in the future as well.

Q: Could you share some insights about efficiency, product configuration and warranty of the products offered at Trinahome?

A: Our whole solar kit system for the module, we provide 25 years of warranty, for the inverter we provide five years of warranty, and for the rest of the items, it is between five to ten years of warranty, depending on what kind of structures they are. So we provide warranty for most of the components, and the whole kit as well.

Pix by Ruwan Walpola