pv magazine Insight
@ Renewable Energy India Expo 2026
October 23, 2026 | Greater Noida, India
The quality question
As India’s solar industry expands up and down the supply chain, maintaining quality is vital. In this pv magazine Insight session, we’ll hear from leading PV manufacturers in India about the challenges they face in scaling up to meet local and overseas demand. We’ll talk with leading quality experts about the risks that come with new technology and a rapid scaleup, and how India can ensure standards are maintained from polysilicon to energy.
Key discussion:
- Moving upstream to meet demand: India’s cell manufacturing scaleup
- Implementing new technologies: Will back contact or tandems takeover from TOPCon?
- Materials and supply chain: reducing silver consumption, glass and frames, and more
- Quality at scale: Monitoring factories and output for issues, solving them quickly
- Common issues found in the field
Meet our experts
Dr. Mahesh Murthy is a passionate champion who has been pioneering energy transition initiatives throughout his nearly 30-year career. Currently, as the Chief Technology Officer at Waaree Group, he supports the technology programs for three core businesses: solar, energy storage and green hydrogen.
Apart from this, he is involved in evaluating technologies as the group continues to vertically integrate and expand via M&A into new businesses relevant to India’s energy transition.
Prior to joining Waaree, Mahesh has been extensively involved in other leadership roles leading technology/product development in fuel cells, electrolysers and energy storage devices. With 25 years of working experience in USA, 10 years in India, 1 year in Australia and extensive collaborations with teams in Japan, Germany and Korea, Mahesh brings a wealth of international experience and best practices to the technology and R&D function.
Mahesh holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrochemical Engineering, a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and an Executive MBA.
Pirmin Preis is Group Leader R&D Solar Cells at ISC Konstanz, Germany, where he leads the development and industrialization of advanced TOPCon solar cell technologies. He is responsible for international ramp-up projects, with a particular focus on supporting the rapid expansion of solar cell manufacturing in India. His work spans technology development, process optimization, manufacturing scale-up, and quality assurance. He also conducts technical quality audits of solar cell manufacturing facilities worldwide, assessing process capabilities, production quality, and technology maturity. Pirmin brings extensive experience at the interface of R&D, equipment suppliers, and large-scale solar cell manufacturing.
Result Oriented Professional with rich experience of 20 years plus in Business Development, Network Development, Channel Management in Solar Energy, Retail Petroleum and Agri Input Industry
Specialties: Experience in working at Renewable Energy start up in Commercial & Industrial Customer domain & Government Nodal Agency segment. Successfully developed Commercial & Industrial business for RE IPP including Open Access, Rooftop business from scratch in all previous and current assignment.
Moderators
Mark Hutchins is Magazine Director. He joined pv magazine in September 2016 as production editor of the monthly global title. Mark also works online reporting on upstream technology and markets, as well as newly emerging solar regions.
Based in New Delhi, Uma Gupta has over 15 years of experience in reporting on subjects ranging from semiconductor chips to energy and automation. She has been associated with pv magazine since 2018, covering latest trends and updates from the Indian solar and energy storage market.