Wind Energy is hot sector in India

• Seakinetic , USA is ready with plans to produce 300 MW wind energy in Tamil Nadu.
• Siemens has alraedy set up its office in Vadodara for actering to wind turbine manufacturing unit.
• Gamesa is coming up with 5 MW size turbine. Wow ! I am dying to see the blades.
• AMSC has got large orders from the new bird Inox Wind ( another Gujrat Based Firm ). Inox wind has plants in Una ( Himachal ) and windfarms in Gujrat.
• Suzlon is reviving. It has got 30MW Rajasthan order. It will make its capacity reach 700 MW.
• Hongkong based China light and power ( CLP ) is installing Vestas make wind turbines in Harpanhalli , Karnataka. CLP is emerging a big player in India as it already has 300MW installed and 100 MW is under contruction.

What's happening in wind energy sector?

Well, its buzzing with lots of activities all around the globe। In India:-

• Reliance power is coming up with 250 MW wind-solar plant at the cost of $600. Their target is to keep carbon emission limited to 850 gms per unit of electricity produced. They are coming p with a pit head super thermal plant of 3960MW at Satna in MP.
• So, the private sector is contributing a lot towards the wind energy development in India.
  Varun Industries is coming up with 5 windmills in Jaisalmer-Rajasthan and DLF already has a business worth Rs1000 Crore i wind energy setor.
• Govt. has not done as much as private players in wind sector, but things are changing fast. NHDC is coming up with 100 MW windfarm in Betul and Maharashtra govt. is planning to set up a SEZ for windfarm only.
• The question here is will India be able to meet the target of 10 % energy from renewable by 2015? At present only 4 % of total power is fed by renewables. 10% is a tall order since it means installations over 15 GW from renewable sources.

Latest information on wind energy

• Guess who is manufacturing blades of size 55 m( larger than an aircraft's wings) for 3MW wind turbines in Asia? Yes, its China. THey will have root dia of 2.3 m , maxm. width 4 m and will weigh 13.5 T. Designed as optimised airfoil, their wind energy utilisation coefficient is 0.49 and they are manufactured with state of art "vacuum infusion process"!
• Guess whats next size ? its going to be 60 m blades for 5 MW turbines.
• Want to know top 10 of wind players globally? Here it is :- 1. Vestas(Denmark) 4500 MW, 2.GE(US) 3300MW, 3.Gamesa(Spain) 3000 MW, 4.Enercon(Germany) 2700 MW, 5.Suzlon(India) 2000 MW, 6.Siemens(Den/Ger) 1500 MW, 7.Acciona(Spain) 900 MW, 8.Goldwind(China) 800 MW, 9. Nordex(Germany) 700 MW and 10.Sinovel (China) 500 MW.

Wind Energy Update

• Tatas are stepping ahead in wind energy market by acquiring "Niskalp" . Any guess who is this "Niscalp"? By the way, Tatas plans are really ambitious. The want 400 MW wind capacity in their cap.
• China didbetter than US in 2009 in wind turbine installations, but the major bottleneck in Chinese prograame is lack of transmission capacity.
• Suzlon , despite being in so much trouble that market advise is against its rights issue, bagged a big order of 23 turbines from China.
• In terms of percentage of power through wind, Spain is still the topper. 15% of their total production is from wind. India produces <>
• How much you think India has invested in Green Energy ? Its huge amount. $1 Billion.

Some interesting facts about wind energy

• Asia Pacific ( India-China) is the fastest growing wind energy region. From 1700MW in 2000 to 41000 MW today, the region is going through a boom. Globally , the capacity is 160,000 MW.
• US,Germany ,Spain, China and India are top 5 wind energy producers. Because of boom in Texas windfarms, US took over Germany in 2008.
• 1 MW of windfarm means saving of 2000 Tonnes of coal.
• Costs have also become comptetive. $55.8/MWh for wind, $53.1/MWh for coal and $52.5/MWh for natural gas is the present cost, which is gradually coming down for wind.
• Main Chinese companies are Xinjiang Goldwind, Sinovel Wind and Dongfang Electric Corp. These have developed overcapacity due to state support and now are entering Indian and European markets.

New Kites in the Indian wind

Seems that everybody is keen on riding the carbon credit bandwagon.

• Tamilnadu witnessed a 6 MW plant set up by Surat based Nakoda Textiles at the cost of 41 Crore. This was helped by Anil Ambani's Global Wind Power Ltd.
• State Bank of India has set up 15 MW capacity windfarms in three states.
• Rajasthan's Alumina manufacturer Orient Abrasives Ltd has set up 1.5 MW plant in Jodhpur.
• Gujrat Fuorochemicals Ltd. launched Inox Wind Ltd has set up2 MW plant in Himachal Pradaesh.
• Siemens is coming up with its unique SWT3.0-101 Direct Drive turbines.
• Birla's Mangalam CementLtd. has extended its orders on Suzlon for plant in Jaisalmer for 7.5 MW capacity. This is with Suzlon's S-82 turbines.

European company's big plans for India

Siemens is all set to invest Rs 500 Crore on wind turbine manufacturing in India. The aim of the company is to get the turbines manufactured at competetive rates in India. Anybody heard of the location of the plant ?
Spanish firm Gamesa has started new turbine manufacturing facility in Chennai ( near Red Hills). G58 model of 850 KW will be manufactured here.Plant capacity is 200 MW per year and will employ 100 odd staff. Gamesa already has order books for 50 MW supply in and around India. A welcome step , since Gamesa-China already exists with capacity of 1000 MW/year.

European and US Wind Scene

SWEDEN:-Sweden has windpower capacity of 1.6 GW. Their wind energy assocaition is called Svensk Vindenergy. Every year Sweden adds some 500 MW.By 2012 it will hve 3GW capacity.

SPAIN:- Who is not familiar with GAMESA? This country ranks 3rd in the world in wind power generation. Energos is another windfarm developer in Spain.

GERMANY:- This is the leader in Europe in wind energy sector. WPD is another windfarm developer there in addition to Bard. REpower is major turbine maker there.

UK:- Clipper windpower is a big player there.

US and CANADA:- NextEra is the largest windfarm owner in states. they have a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developing the technology. Avista is known for its mega projects. Horizon Wind Energy belongs to Portugese EDP Renovaveis. Other players are Iberdola Renovables, E.ON, First Wind Energy, Eurus, Eneland EverPower.In Canada, Southpoint wind is major player.

Features of wind energy in India

• Grid connected wind energy potential capacity:- 1,00,000 MW @ 25% PLF. This amounts to 219.0 mKWh annual Generation.
• Feed in Tariff is mostly ranging between Rs.3.00 to Rs.4.oo per unit .Andhra(3.37),Guj(3.37),Karnataka(3.40),Kerala(3.14),MP(3.97),Mech(3.50),Raj(3.65),TN(3.10),WB(4.00),Haryana(4.08).
• There are 30,000 employees at present in India in wind energy sector and by the year 2020, we expect this to become 1,36,000.
• There are 4 normative operating parameters specified in by CERC for fixation of tariff:- 1.Capital cost(Rs 5.15 Cr/MW),

2.CUF (20 % - 30 % depndingon annual mean wind power density) ,

3.O&M(Rs.6.5 lakh/MW with escalation factor of 5.72%p.a.)
4.Capital cost index(limited to WPI of steel and electrical machines)

Windfarm near Veer Savarkar's Village

Recently I made a visit to another wind heaven- Suzlon's Sinnar plant.
All machines are 1.5 MW. There are 52 such machines.

Latest FSS technology has been used in place of fluid couplings in some of the machines. One blade weighs 5.2 T and the Nacelle weighs 67 T. So we need 500 T crane for the work.

Feeling the breez on my hairs. Machine gives full output at 12m/s. Cut in is 3.5 m/s and cut out is 22 m/s.

Tower height is 78.5 m . Rotor is 40 m long. The dia with hub is 82 m. All machines are remotely controlled from Pune.

And the location has historical significance. Freedom Fighter Veer Savarkar's birthplace is nearby.