India's Suzlon Energy encounters headwinds at home
Suzlon Energy Ltd., the world’s fifth-largest wind-turbine maker by sales, is facing complaints in its home market of India over technical problems with turbines, only months after blades it sold to U.S. buyers began cracking.
Some of Suzlon Energy’s largest Indian customers say their turbines fail to generate anywhere near the amount of electricity expected, suffer from excessive vibrations during high winds and have control problems costing them millions of dollars in lost power revenue.
“The machines are not fit to handle the wind,” said Shrenik Baldota, managing director of MSPL Ltd., an Indian mining company and one of India’s largest investors in wind power. Mr. Baldota is one of a number of Suzlon’s top customers who say they have turbine problems. Others include Essel Mining & Industries Ltd., Madras Cements Ltd. and KS Oils Ltd.
The complaints don’t bode well for Suzlon, which has been at the forefront of a massive push to develop wind energy in India, carving out more than a 50% market share. The country has installed wind turbines with 8,000 megawatts of capacity, helping the country become the world’s fourth-largest windpower producer behind Germany, the U.S. and Spain.
MSPL has purchased almost 100 units of Suzlon’s 1.25 megawatt turbine, making it one of the company’s biggest domestic customers.
By Tom Wright
25 August 2008
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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