India sailing on wind
power By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - With booming India looking to
tap every possible source of energy, one area of
focus recently has been wind energy, widely
regarded as a particularly environment-friendly
and renewable form of alternative energy.
Particular attention has fallen on the
sector because of recent big-ticket announcements
by Indian wind-energy firm Suzlon and a top Indian
businessman's foray into tapping wind energy.
Adding a bit of welcome glamour to the field,
Bollywood actress Aishwarya
Rai
and cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar have invested
in windmill projects in the Satara district of
Maharashtra and in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
Globally, there has been a big push to
harness alternative sources of energy, and wind
power, a fairly mature technology, has become one
of the most popular alternatives. In the mid-1990s
the wind-energy business was seen as uncertain
because of the predominance of fossil fuels. With
oil prices in the US$60-$70-per-barrel range, and
demand for energy rising exponentially, this is no
longer the case.
India is well positioned
to reap the benefits of the wind boom. The
country's monsoon winds, particularly the
southwest monsoon, which provides 80% of the
wind-energy generation potential, contribute to a
current annual power production of about 4,300
megawatts from wind projects, standing fourth in
the world behind Germany, Spain and the United
States. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy
foresees added capacity of 5,000MW from wind by
2012. Not only is India seen as the largest market
for wind energy in the Asia-Pacific region, but it
is a manufacturing hub for wind turbines and
related parts and equipment.
Non-resident
Indian (NRI) businessman C Sivasankaran, who last
year pocketed $800 million by selling his
mobile-phone service, Aircel, to Malaysia's Maxis,
is investing more than $120 million in the
wind-energy sector, which is only Phase 1 of his
more elaborate plans. Siva has acquired land
across India's most promising regions for wind
energy (the Tirunelveli and Nagercoil districts in
South Tamil Nadu) and is picking up equity stakes
in contractors for maintaining the windmills.
Orders for the windmills will be placed
soon, Sivasankaran told The Times of India: "Our
Phase 1 plan envisages a financial investment of
Rs6 billion [$134 million]. We want to have 150MW
[of power-generation capacity] under our belt in
the first year of our operations." He said the
group has acquired close to 485 hectares of land
across South Tamil Nadu for this purpose. "We will
set up 150 windmills, each with a capacity to
generate 1MW," he said.
Prior to Siva's
moves, Pune-based wind-turbine manufacturer Suzlon
Energy announced plans to invest $60 million in
its factory in the eastern Chinese port city of Tianjin. The investment
is the first by an Indian company in the Chinese
energy sector and one of the largest by any Indian
firm in China, which has set itself a goal of 30
gigawatts (1GW = 1,000MW) of installed renewable
capacity within the next 15 years. At present,
China's renewable-energy consumption accounts for
only 3% of this total. The plan is to build
wind-power facilities of 5,000MW by 2010 and
increase this to 30,000MW by 2020. At present,
Germany, Spain and the US are the biggest markets
for wind power.
To enhance its European
presence, Suzlon, owned by Indian billionaire
Tulsi R Tanti, took a further big leap on the
global stage when it acquired Belgium's Hansen
Transmissions International NV, one of the largest
wind-energy and industrial-gearbox manufacturers
in the world. The all-cash transaction of more
than $500 million will allow Suzlon to gain
control of Hansen's crucial gearbox unit and its
world-class technology.
Hansen
Transmissions is the world's second-biggest maker
of gearboxes, a crucial component of wind
turbines. Hansen, founded in 1923, had total sales
of more than $200 million in 2005. Its primary
manufacturing facilities are in Belgium, with
sales, assembly and service centers in the United
Kingdom, the United States, South Africa and
Australia. It employs 1,200 engineering and
management professionals, and current
manufacturing capabilities include 3,600MW worth
of wind-turbine gearboxes and 3,000 units of
industrial gearboxes per year.
"The
acquisition of Hansen gives us technological
leadership and will make Suzlon [one of the]
leading integrated wind-turbine manufacturers in
the world," said Tanti.
While Hansen will
be run as an independent business unit, the
acquisition will allow Suzlon to integrate gearbox
technology into its wind-turbine solutions,
creating a more reliable and competitive product.
In the past Tanti has stated that India
loses 45,000MW of power daily because of the
untapped potential of wind energy. Suzlon, now
India's leading manufacturer of wind-turbine
generators, was a relatively unknown company just
two years ago, privately held by the erstwhile
textile-producing Tanti family, Gujaratis who have
made Pune their home. The firm went public last
year, and its market capitalization now stands at
$8.4 billion, with the family stake amounting to
$5.6 billion.
Suzlon has also been trying
to sell wind energy to India's corporate sector as
a low-cost alternative. The company has persuaded
firms such as Bajaj Auto, Godrej Group, MSPL Ltd,
Ramco Group, Alembic, Bannari Amman group and a
large number of textile units in Tirupur to try
wind energy.
Others also have plans in
place. The state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd
(HPCL) in Mumbai has identified seven sites in
Maharashtra and Karnataka for its wind-energy
projects and aims to generate 500MW in the next
three to four years. State energy giant Oil and
Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Reliance Energy Ltd
(REL) have announced plans to invest in wind
energy. ONGC is developing projects across six
states, while REL is planning projects in coastal
states including Karnataka.
Nuclear Power
Corp of India Ltd is setting up a windmill project
near its nuclear power plant in Kudankulam, Tamil
Nadu, to generate 50MW of wind power that will be
used by the plant. More than 400 windmills have
been set up in the desert city of Jaisalmer,
collectively producing 150MW of power. Consumers
in Jaisalmer pay Rs3.25 (7.3 cents) per unit of
power, which is one of the lowest power tariffs in
the country.
Indeed, there is money to be
made in renewable energy, as the potential for
expansion is quite large. The Planning Commission,
in its draft integrated energy policy, has
estimated power-generation-capacity requirements
reaching 627,088MW in the year 2031, far beyond
the present capacity of 130,000MW. India's largely
indigenous (so far, that is) nuclear power program
aims to generate 20,000MW of power by 2020, up
from current levels of close to 3,500MW. It is
estimated that wind, small hydroelectric and
biomass sources have the potential to generate
80,000MW in India altogether.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
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2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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