The key components of rooftop solar photo voltaic (RTSPV) power systems are Solar Modules (PV Panels) and Solar Inverters. Along with this, there are other components that are integral to the installation like  Panel mounting structures, DCDB with SPDs, DC Disconnect, DC Fuses, AJB with Fuses, Busbar, Terminals, ACDB with MCB, SPD and Contactors, Bidirectional Meters, MC4 Connectors, AC,DC Cable & Wiring, AC Earthing, DC Earthing, Remote Monitoring system etc.  

Every component is crucial for smooth functioning of RTS system for 25 long years and hence needless to say you look for solution that uses proven industry standard quality brands.

Polycrystalline solar panel is made of solar cells from many crystals in each cell. These panels are made of silicon. To make the cells of polycrystalline panel, fragments of silicon are melted together to form the wafers that harness the light energy into electricity. The productivity level of polycrystalline solar panels is typically low compared to Mono.

Monocrystalline solar panels are made of silicon wafers from single piece of silicon crystal.  The silicon used to make these solar panels are high in purity. Monocrystalline panels are marginally expensive due to the higher cost of production, but they generate more power units per square unit area.

You can expect both poly and monocrystalline panels to have an average lifespan of between 25 to 30 years. However, these panels will not stop producing electricity altogether at the end of this period, it will only generate power at lesser efficiency due to some degradation.

If you have open rooftop space constraint, then it is advisable to go for Monocrystalline panels as they produce more power in lesser area compared to Poly. Otherwise polycrystalline is economical option.   

As per study results, a 1KW RTS installation should be able to generate an average of 4 Units/Day. On average, regions in Karnataka with good solar irradiance would get anywhere between 5+ units in summer and 3.5+ units in rainy/winter days. Hence 4 units /day/KW installed capacity is a good assumption for productivity of RTS. However this number is dependant on the design of system, shadow-less south facing roof top with right gradient and weather conditions during the year.

No. There will be numerous brands, some imported some India made. Not all can be considered as top rated. Hence you may find only few are empanelled brands with MNRE and KEB.  Some tier-1 brands have extensive R&D setup along side manufacturing setup that one should consider while deciding. Some are certified by leading international certifying agency like PVEL for solar industry and gets rated in PV Module rating score card every year. So naturally companies that have long industry presence and focus on R&D and Quality are to be considered as against lesser known brands that get imported and get installed in your RTS.  This would have a significant impact on your warranty support in future if brands used don’t have India presence after few years.

As the lifetime for any RTS is 25+ years it is imperative that top quality products to be considered as part of solution. Not only for PV Panels, Inverters and Batteries but also all other sophisticated electronic components and connectors, cabling that go into the system need to of tier-1 industry standard. KEB insists that only MNRE empanelled components are to approved. Unknown brands will pose issues when warranty claims in future. Strong India presence would be a prerequisite for Panels and Inverters to consider.  Local presence for post implementation support is key. Any delay due to turn around time to attend to issues will result in days of power generation downtime.

Look for extras if additionally, being charged as actuals. They may impact your budget. There are few mandatory requirements that need to met by installers as per KEB norms like safety railings, pathways, non-standard products etc. Good to have them noticed in proposals before going ahead with the project.

As a thumb rule, it is approx. 50-60 SqFt per KW based on Mono/Polycrystalline panels used. It may vary slightly in shadow-prone rooftops to avoid shadow roof areas.

The area required in ground mounted solar power plants may differ if single/multi axis rotator solutions are used for increased power production to follow the sun, especially on ground mounted solar power plants.

If your power requirements are in MWs ground mounted solar park OR Utility-scale solar power plants could be an option. The solar energy generated here is exported to KEB grid and then sold to other large power consumers via power purchase agreements OR used for captive consumption in same locale or in another geo location.

At SmartEco, we undertake each RTS installation project as EPC contract where we take up end-to-end tasks that starts from liaison/ coordinating paperwork at CESCOM for obtaining the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between you and KEB till the RTS is commissioned and approved by KEB. You only provide required documents and signatures on Forms. We will take care of all other aspects of installation till you get your first net metering bills from CESCOM.

Needless to say, our proposal quote includes all costs related to this, so that you don’t lose sleep on this when project is executed.  

Typically it is between 4-6 weeks from the day required document is submitted to obtain PPA along with advance. Unforeseen delays very rarely possible when shortages of semiconductor based components in market as seen during Covid lockdown OR due to minor delays in approvals from CESCOM as per their priority workload.

SmartEco projects come with 1 year of free post implementation support that include all technical support, periodic inspection and replacement of parts if technical issue are reported during the period. We also remotely monitor power generation using Remote Monitoring App provided as part of solution.  

Other support during post installation is help for coordinating with CESCOM for streamlining the net metering process ensuring 1^st net metering billing is done accurately and credits to your bank happen as per agreement.

Warranty support comes from OEMs. Inverters will have 5 year of warranty and PV Panels have 25 year product warranty with guaranteed power output of 90% for the first 12 years and 80% for next 13 years.

Extended warranty can be bought as per OEM’s terms that will safeguard owners interest in the long run.

When you opt for net-metering with CESCOM, the solar power units generated by RTS get exported to grid during the day and your consumption during night happens by drawing power from grid. Excess units if you consume only gets charged to you. If surplus units are generated and exported, you gets a credit by CESCOM at agreed buy-back tariff (@Rs.3.79/unit for residential customers and @Rs.3.20/unit from (as on June 2024) for commercial customers). This credit happens automatically to you bank account registered with CESCOM after few initial billing/accounting cycles at CESCOM.

SmartEco will provide liaison support to streamline this activity till 1^st billing cycle credit happens successfully, and then on it will be an automated process that ensures that your bank account gets credit every month.

Though at nascent stages w.r.t adoption, power generation efficiency popularity etc., these are future avenues of harnessing solar power going forward.

Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) are solar power generating products or systems that are seamlessly integrated into part of building components such as façades, roof tiles, walls and windows.  Yet to become commercially available as mainstream renewable energy option.

There are flexible panels in the market that uses silicon wafers like PV panels and has ~17% efficiency that can be considered for curved GI roofs (upto some degree) without compromising on the decorum of the facades.

YES. In farmhouses around Mysore where continuous power availability is a challenge, SmartEco helped installing Integrated solar power systems for irrigation pumps PLUS home appliances needs.

During the day the RTS power can be channelled to irrigation as many hours as needed and can then switch over to household needs. Sufficient backup capacity is to be arrived based on needs and battery bank capacity to be installed.

The AC power supply can be classified into single-phase (1-phase) and three-phase (3-phase). In general, a single-phase power is used where electricity requirement is low. for running small residential appliances. The three-phase power carries a heavy load and can run large machinery in commercial setup.

Typically smaller capacity residential power load sanctions may be given as 1 phase by KEB. If so, RTS inverters can be of 1 phase support which are marginally cheaper. But residences that has three-phase power connection that runs water pumps etc. need to go for three-phase inverters.   If your residence already has single-phase power, you should make sure that you have a single-phase inverter installed and same goes with three-phase.

The integrated All-In-One solar lights come with all components like PV panel, battery, charge controller, sensors etc. all built into one unit sold by vendors online OR imported. The warranty is also limited to short period of replacement because repairs may be difficult of individual parts. Whereas the custom designed are assembled by using quality branded components of required specifications so that you get what you need w.r.t PV panel wattage capacity, Battery technology like Li-Ion/LFP and option of pole height, gauge of metal, GI/SS/MS etc. In case of technical issues, the problem can be zeroed down into each component and can be rectified/replaced as per warranty of each.

Custom designed street lights can host surveillance cameras drawing power from the same solar battery bank thus eliminating need of another electrical wiring and cameras can be housed on the same locations where areas are well lit. Optional automaton can also be designed based on sensor based technology available.

Refer to www.smarteco.in/projects for custom designed street lights by SmartEco.

Every hour of RTS downtime will accumulate revenue loss. Hence turn-around time for addressing technical issues is the key during post installation support of RTS. However once commissioned, the RTS systems do not require major maintenance other than routine cleaning and periodic check-up for power generation efficiency. Hence big maintenance costs are not envisaged.

However, if AMC support is needed, SmartEco would provide support at a nominal fee, agreeable to both parties with clearly laid out scope of activities, renewable every year, after 1st year of free post implementation support.

SmartEco being Mysore based, will be in a better position to attend to issues with quicker turn-around time compared to non-Mysore based EPC installers. SmartEco provides 1 year of FREE post implementation technical support that includes addressing technical issues w.r.t all components deployed, liaison with BESCOM for billing issues and with OEMs w.r.t warranty claims etc.

Various factors contribute to the performance of solar power plants such as radiation, temperature, and other climatic conditions. RTS design, inverter, panel and other equipment’s efficiency also matters. It is important to undertake the performance audit of solar power plants. Knowledge about the performance of solar power plant will help with timely actions for better power production.

Better performance of Solar PV power plants is essential in terms of increased revenue generation to the asset owner. As the saying goes “You can’t manage what you can’t measure“,  the performance audit of the plants on regular interval will indicate rooms for performance improvements on continuous basis.

SmartEco consulting service for Performance Audit has a detailed approach with remote analysis of RMS data, due-diligence, design review at onsite and reporting of findings, recommendations, and best practices for area of improvements.  

Based on findings from various RTS Performance Audits that we have completed, one observation is noteworthy. Installations may lack basic RTS design principles due to which power generation will take a hit in the long run.

If solution design is not done well and project not executed properly as per design by the subcontracted party, the power generation will show up much lower than estimated production figures in the RMS system.

For example, not taking care of shadow-prone areas, deciding on full vs half-cut panels, not deciding the right panel string size for each charge controller, not leveraging the #of charge controllers in Inverters, ignoring the right direction for panel array layout and gradient for panels etc. would impact power production and result in revenue loss.  

Even not configuring the inverters properly in the RMS servers will give misleading statistics on the dashboard, if ignored, will make you lose sight of power production anomalies.

Needless to say, the installing company professionals should be qualified enough to take care of all these intricate design specifics to deliver a properly engineered RTS solution to you.

Google customer satisfaction reviews and any other good source of customer feedback or even word-of-mouth should serve you as a yardstick to go by before deciding an EPC company for your project. Because if customer is happy with the quality of service, it will invariably reflect in social media reviews so also unhappiness.

At SmartEco, solution design is done by experienced engineering professional. SmartEco has been rated 4.8/5 by customers in the Customer Satisfaction Survey in Google that we are extremely proud of.