Leitner Shriram, a joint venture company is on its last lap of preparations to manufacture 1.5 mw capacity wind turbine generators (WTGs) at Gumudipoondi, (near Chennai) plant targeting the fast growing domestic and European markets.
?From next month the company, a joint venture between Shriram EPC and Leitwind, a Netherlands company will manufacture 120 wind turbines a year and raise the capacity to 250 wind turbines from 2010,? informed Shriram EPC managing director and CEO T Shivaraman.
The European Union led by Spain, Germany, Denmark and others have total installed capacity of 56,538 mw of wind power with annual capacity addition exceeding 8,500 mw. Indian wind power capacity is nearing 9,000 mw with states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Karnataka are set to grow rapidly in wind power capacity installations.
?In the Western Europe wind power installation is switching over to offshore with multi-megawatt capacity turbines. There are new markets emerging in the East European countries like Bulgaria. Leitner Shriram is targeting this market through its partner Leitwind??, said Shivaraman.
?Though there is a temporary lull in the market, the renewable energy industry will remain recession-free and more investments will follow to fight the green house gas emissions and tackle climate change and global warming??, he said.
Shivaraman said the company has chosen both the wind farm development model, and client-based sales of WTGs. In India the preferred destinations for Leitner Shriram are in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The company has acquired land in these states to develop wind farms. It was looking for suitable sites in other states like Gujarat.
For the client-based business, the company focuses on providing integrated solutions, which included the development and manufacture of WTGs, identification of suitable sites for wind farms, technical planning, infrastructure development, installation and commissioning of WTGs, connection to power grids and after-sale O&M services for WTGs .
Shriram EPC has over 20 years of experience in wind turbine manufacturing and installations. Its earlier focus was on 250 kw machines.
In September 2006, the company received approval and certification of Deutsches Wind Energie-Institut GmbH for the design of its 250 kw-class WTG, after which it started manufacture and sale of its own 250 kw WTGs. As of March 31, 2008, it had supplied and/or installed more than 1,40,250 kw WTGs in various wind sites in India.
Shriram EPC is also engaged in the design, engineering and construction of biomass-based power plants since 2001. Its first plant near Hyderabad based on rice husk as fuel has a rated capacity of 6 mw.
Shivaraman said biomass power plants with a total capacity of 150 mw were under construction in various states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
