How EPC Leaders Are Driving LargeScale Solar Energy Adoption

In an exclusive interview with Thiruamuthan, correspondent at Industry Outlook, Richa Varshney, Director & business head  - Renewable Energy, Tembo Global Industries Limited, shares her insights on large scale solar energy adoption. She elaborates on how innovation across engineering, procurement, and construction firms has optimized the solar projects across India.  From precision-driven tracker alignment and bifacial module deployment to modular construction and battery integration, EPCs are leveraging site-specific design, predictive analytics, and smart electrical engineering to boost energy yields and ensure long-term reliability.  

Given that solar yield depends on site-specific design, how are EPC teams optimizing tracker angles, bifacial modules, and layouts across India’s diverse climate zones? 

Diverse climate and terrain conditions within India's solar industry create a challenge to plant efficiency maximization. In response, EPC players are adopting tracker technology, bifacial modules, and GPS-based design tools as key drivers of performance. These systems give accurate irradiation, albedo, and tilt angles data to enable them to construct site-specific configurations. 

For example, TEMBO employs AI-driven layout software and works with tracker OEMs to maximize pitch and tilt depending on local conditions. This has resulted in a six to eight percent boost in energy yield per project in high-albedo regions such as Rajasthan and Gujarat. It has also minimized design rework and saved up to 20 percent of commissioning time, improving execution efficiency.   

This data-driven strategy allows each solar asset to be maximized for long-term performance, delivering consistent returns over a 25 year life, the same across India's most demanding geographies. 

Since soil stability impacts structure longevity, what innovations in pile design are helping EPCs speed up installation while ensuring durability in large-scale Indian projects? 

To ensure structural stability and fast track timelines in mega-scale Indian solar projects, EPCs are now more frequently opting for cast-in-place C-section driven piles, which are strong, versatile, and quick to drive through diverse soil conditions. 

The procedure starts with meticulous soil testing, which guides the foundation plan. After understanding the sand typography the decision on the type of pile installation is made. For instance, Cast-in-place piles are favored because they can be easily deployed and are corrosion-resistant, owing to controlled factory production. Yet, in complicated situations such as water-saturated or poor-penetrating sites, precast or micro piles are employed to ensure structural stability. 

These pile design innovations balance speed, durability, and site-specific flexibility, guaranteeing long-term solar structure reliability on a wide range of terrains. 

Also read: Waaree Renewables Wins Major Solar EPC Project Contract

With real-time monitoring crucial for uptime, how are EPCs using SCADA, predictive analytics, and automation to minimise downtime and boost solar plant performance? 

To reduce downtime and increase solar plant output, EPCs are using state-of-the-art SCADA systems that provide real-time, accurate monitoring down to the module level in remote areas. Adding to this predictive analytics combined to it such assist in predicting equipment wear and tear. This all-time monitoring helps in arranging preventive maintenance prior to huge damage. The automation also helps in enabling remote personnel to oversee processes effectively without the need for constant on-location presence. 

This combined strategy enhances uptime considerably while providing more transparency to investors, O&M teams, and developers, enabling smoother and more consistent plant performance. 
As battery integration grows, what challenges are EPCs facing in grid synchronization, energy balancing, and managing battery life during large-scale solar deployments in India? 

At present in India we can notice a rise in the battery deployment due to big solar schemes, with which EPCs are confronted with challenges such as grid synchronization, energy balancing, and battery longevity management. The existing grid is not suited for bi-directional power flow, leading to stability concerns at scale. EPCs depend on sophisticated energy management systems to manage supply-demand mismatches and maximize battery utilization. 

Hence monitoring the health of smart batteries is crucial at present, to make it last longer and achieve sustainability.  Besides, reliance on imported battery parts harbors supply risks, although domestic production is likely to increase with government PLI schemes. 

Also Read: Gautam Solar to set up 5GW Cell Plant in Gwalior by 2026
Given electrical design’s role in system losses, what improvements in inverter sizing, cabling, and evacuation are driving efficiency gains in Indian utility-scale solar plants? 

The Indian utility- scale solar farms are being driven by the demand for  inverted sizing, cabling and power evacuation to drive efficiency. Furthermore, evolution from central to string inverters has enabled improved monitoring and faster fault detection at the string level, enhancing overall generation and minimizing downtime.  

Innovative technologies such as micro inverters and DC-DC converters (power optimizers) has further maximized the panel-level performance, reducing losses and increasing output. On the cabling side, employing higher quality, correctly sized cables minimizes resistive losses and maximizes power flow efficiency.  

Larger capacity evacuation infrastructure also allows for smoother transfer of power generated, minimizing losses and facilitating grid stability, particularly in large-scale projects. 

Amid growing pressure for fast execution, how are EPCs using modular construction and prefabricated systems to accelerate deployment without compromising long-term solar asset performance? 

EPCs are increasingly adopting modular build and prefabricated solutions to accelerate solar project deployment while guaranteeing long-term performance. By relocating labor-intensive operations off-site to conditioned factory space, quality is improved and installation becomes quicker and more efficient.  

For instance, advanced tracker systems are pre-assembled today as plug-and-play solutions, streamlining onsite construction and minimizing skilled labor requirements. Through close coordination among EPCs, module manufacturers, and structure suppliers, integration is smooth and implementation is accelerated. The procedure reduces on-site errors, increases project reliability, and is necessary for keeping pace with the increasing demand for quick, large-scale solar installations.