India — part and parcel

With India's wind power industry expected to grow to 3,000 MW of new installations a year for the next 10 years, more manufacturers are expected to start assembling their products locally. There is also bound to be greater indigenisation of components.

The country now has a manufacturing capacity of 10,000 MW, which itself is far excess of demand, accounted for by some 18 manufacturers.

Mr D.V. Giri, Chairperson, Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association, the representative body of turbine makers, expects at least another five manufacturers to set up shop in India within the next 24 months. The capacity is expected to go up to 12-13,000 MW a year. Most of the critical components such as control systems, generators and gearboxes are still imported by a majority of the manufacturers.

This is yet another instance of how India differs from China. The Chinese turbine manufacturing industry accounts for 70 per cent of the country's supply and the manufacturers are now beginning to export their products.

How did this happen? When the Government of India drew up plans to encourage wind power, it ensured that second-hand machines did not come in, but never thought of encouraging component manufacturing. “I think that has been the greatest problem,” says Mr Giri.

According to him, China insisted that 70 per cent of the components in a turbine should be locally made, which forced most of the global manufacturers to set up facilities in the country. India, on the other hand, did not have any such requirement, because of which parts continue to be imported. However, now with the installations going up every year, the industry thinks it is just a matter of time before more local manufacture is done.

“At an annual market of anything above 2,500 MW, major players would indigenise everything,” says Mr Ramesh Kymal, Managing Director, Gamesa Wind Turbines Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Gamesa of Spain. Gamesa, which has an assembling facility near Chennai, plans to set up plants to make towers, blades and nacelles.

A comparison will show why China has raced ahead in terms of manufacturing capability. Just four years back, at the end of 2007, India with an installed capacity of about 8,000 MW was in the fourth spot globally in terms of total wind power capacity and China occupied the fifth position with about 6,000 MW. At the end of 2010, China had leapfrogged over the likes of the US and Germany to the top, with an installed capacity of 42,287 MW. India was in the fifth position with 13,065 MW; the only redeeming aspect for India was that it added 2,139 MW in 2010, the highest so far in its history.

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