In order to establish its presence in India and support local customers onsite, REFUsol opens dedicated local offices in Hyderabad and New Delhi in addition to the Mumbai office. The sales representatives together with additional engineers will provide customer support, engineering, commissioning and after-sales service for installation of solar inverters. The company will also open
further manufacturing facilities and grow its head count over the course of the next months, stressing its commitment to the Indian market.
The manufactury opening will be in Pune. Although REFUsol already delivers into the Indian market, local production will commence this year, with deliveries from the Indian facilities planned for early 2012. In addition, the REFUsol inverters have received approval from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg
(LBBW). The company therefore has gained bankability, which means that the bank believes that REFUsol will bring certain profit and success and is a dependable as well as a reliable supplier. LBBW has agreed to work with REFUsol customers in India to offer supplier credit under Letters of Credit opened by acceptable banks in India for the import of inverters from REFUsol Germany. REFUsol customers will therefore be able to receive supplier credit to be able to import inverters to India.
Thomas Wittek, CEO and General Manager India Refu Solar Electronics Pvt. Ltd. comments: Bankability plays an increasingly important role in the photovoltaic industry and is becoming a key factor for project financing. Therefore we are pleased that our inverters have passed the LBBWs high quality criteria for bankability. This will have a positive impact on our solar inverter business in India.
The "Certificate of Compliance" that REFUsol received for its REFUsol 008K – 020K inverters for India proves the compliance with the IEC-Standards. Financing a solar energy project is usually regarded as unsecured lending by banks. Therefore project investors seek the lowest risk on the various variables present. These risk variables include solar array product quality, completion likelihood, off-taker credit worthiness, project model quality, and environmental factors.
LBBW has had a representative office in Mumbai since November 1999 and has correspondent relations with all major banks in the Public and Private Sector as well as Financial Institutions in India. The bank is actively engaged in providing medium to long term financing for the import of Capital Equipment, mainly from Germany. Furthermore, REFUsol has received the "Certificate of compliance" for its REFUsol 008K – 020K inverters for India, which is a proof of the quality and safety of the products.
REFUsol will be exhibiting at Intersolar India from December 14 to 16, 2011 (hall 1, booth number 1556) in Mumbai.
