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Gamesa Wind Turbines is looking to set up solar panels alongside its turbines to enhance power generation.
Mr Ramesh Kyal, Chairman and Managing Director of Gamesa in India, told Business Line that plans were on to install a ‘combo' of solar and turbines as it would substantially improve the plant load factor (PLF).
Asked whether the combination needs to be tried out, Mr Kyal said “no testing is required as both are proven technologies”.
Gamesa has spoken to its customers on the possibility of combining the two technologies at locations where wind farms were put up as also those going in for new installations.
The PLF of wind turbines is in the range of 22-30 per cent, while that of solar about 20-25 per cent, depending on location.
Sources said Gamesa does have experience in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) in the field and the combination was expected to produce a PLF of between 30 and 35 per cent.
Advantageous combination
One distinct advantage of the solar-wind combination was that whenever wind speeds were strong, sunlight was less. Similarly, when temperature shot up, wind speed dropped with brighter sunshine.
Ready for commercial exploitation, the combination was workable as it could be set up alongside the footprint of turbines.
Sources said a 2.5-acre turbine footprint could accommodate solar panels on about 1.5 acres, more so if they used PV crystalline technology and preferably on a mobile platform. The mobile platform helped as it could be pulled aside to service the turbine equipment and accessories.
The advantages would be multi-fold on large installations as one MW of solar power required close to four acres, which could be between turbines' footholds.
The combined offering is expected to gain substantial momentum if PV panel prices drop.
Industry experts said solar generation tariffs in Europe, especially in Germany, Spain and Italy, were turning unattractive with tariffs being lowered. This was expected to create an oversupply position for manufacturers in Europe and force them to look to alternative markets to sell their produce. They strongly felt the prices could take a beating and the fall could be a high as 30 per cent in a year or two, which in turn would lower the solar project cost per MW, which currently is over Rs 15 crore.
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