Wind energy company ReGen Powertech has firm orders, estimated at about Rs 2,800 crore, to set up over 580 MW capacity of wind energy generators in the current year.

Mr Madhusudan Khemka, Managing Director, ReGen, said over the next month the company is set to add more orders, taking the total this year to over 700 MW, to conclude 2012-13 with a turnover of about Rs 4,000 crore. Last year it did Rs 2,500 crore when it nearly doubled its turnover over that of the previous year.

The current year will also be significant as its expanded production capacity will be in place with its second factory coming up in Udaipur, Rajasthan, to make windmill generators and towers. Its first unit is in Tada, Andhra Pradesh, about 150 km north of Chennai.

Blade unit

The company is investing over Rs 220 crore in Udaipur, including Rs 100 crore for the generator and tower factory, and the balance for an exclusive blade manufacturing unit by LM Glasfiber for ReGen.

It is expected to start production in September 2013 and work on the unit is expected to start in a few months.

This unit will make blades of a design more advanced than the latest V87 that the blade manufacturer supplies from its Bangalore facility for ReGen, which takes more than three-fourth's of its production, according to Mr Khemka.

Another significant development will be the introduction of 2.5 MW windmills. Both its production facilities, which now produce 1.5 MW units, are equipped to manufacture the larger machines.

The company plans to set up a couple of prototypes produced in India and go for type approvals.

The company is unique in that it can do its own type-testing. These will be completed by the second quarter of 2013, with the ‘real launch' in 2014, after supply chain and cost optimisation. ReGen is targeting a turnkey cost of about Rs 5.5 crore a MW for these machines.

Not hit by dip

The 1.5 MW machines — the company expects to make over 500 of these this year — cost around Rs 6 crore a MW on a turnkey basis.

Mr Khemka said ReGen has not been hit by the dip the industry is facing because it primarily caters to independent power producers. Its buyers are not affected by the Government ending the tax breaks for wind power investors in the current year.

rbalaji@thehindu.co.in

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