Suzlon Marches ahead despite troubles.

World's 5th largest wind turbine manufacturer is facing hard times. Its two US customers - M/S Deere and M/S Edison have reportedly cancelled some orders and placed them on GE.
In June 2007, Edison placed an order of 2.1 x 300 MW turbines on Suzlon. Half of the order i.e. for 150 turbines has been cancelled because Edison is is repordtedly not satsfied with the 'root cause analysis' of the rotor blades cracks.
Competetors of Suzlon- Vestas, Nordex ets have got about 50 % increase in the order book, a mark yet to be achieved by it.
The problem with Deere supply was reported to be lower plant availability.
By 2012, Suzlon will cross 14000 MW mark in terms of installed capacity.

Indian Wind Turbine Market

With 8500 MW installed capacity India Ranks 4th in the world. Suzlon's market share is 55% in that. Whats is unique about the Indian market? Unlike the Europe where most of the wind power is taken by utilities and is generated by IPPs, here in india, the lion's share ( 75%) of the wind power is used by the private companies as captive power generation.
Power Producers are barely 24% of total!

Poor Generation Problem of Wind Turbines

Why there is poor generation in some of the wind turbines? The reasons could be:-
1. Bad siting.
2. Power Curve related problem ( pitch angle setting and yaw alignment).
3. Equipment Inefficiency.
4.Losses.

To overcome we can
1. Increase the hub hieght.
2.Relocate the wind turbine.
3.Can correct the yaw alignments and pitch settings.
4.Can change the noisy gearbox/generator.

India's success story in the Wind Energy Sector

In the 94000 MW worldwide capacity, India stands 4th with 7850MW installations. This sector is growing @26.6% annually. Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra are leading states.
Recently some state of art Provisional Typr Testing Facilities have been developed in India.

Why not make Wind Energy a B -Tech branch in IITs

India is facing acute power crisis. Its going to worsen as fossil fuels get depleted. We have lots of tech issues resolved in the wind power sector, but some still exist. Wind power is growing at a rate of 22% per annum. It needs dedicated techies to work in the industry.
Microsiing, Wind mapping, compnent designing, operation and maintenance, gris connectivity are some of the many subjects that can be in the curriculum.

How to overcome Gearbox Problem

Gearbox is the most difficult item in the supply chain of wind turbines. Larger the gearbox, more is the problem.

Suzlon has some inhouse capacity, but thats not enough. Lets solve this problem by 5 point plan:-

1. Declrare incentives for gearbox manufacturers.

2.Setting up a tech mission roping in IITs to suggest design changes to imrove reliability.

3.Make import duty free.

4.Allow free transportation to reduce landing cost.

Due Diligence Report

Wind farm is a huge project. Every project that needs financing goes through 'Due Diligence Report'. Its a techno-economical-legal verifiction report. It helps us know:-
1. The overall wind energy market scenario.
2. Economic viabilty of the wind power project.
3.Constraints ans their trend.
4.Analysis of various players
5.Legal aspects
6. Future prospects.
7.Technical details.