Suzlon Energy Ltd is strengthening its resolve to wind energy as it narrows down to scale, technology and long term development as part of a new business strategy, top company management told people on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The firm is placing its bet in the resurgence of the wind energy industry in India, which is backed by the stability in the policies and the increasing demand of clean energy.
Wind 2.0 Strategy at the Core
The wind energy has been given a core position in the transformation roadmap of Suzlon, which is internally known as Wind 2.0. Its strategy is geared towards efficiency of turbines, localisation of production and expediency of project. Its current manufacturing capacity is approximately 4.5 GW per year and the company is planning to maximise this capacity in next two years with the increase in the order inflows.
Wind installations in India will speed up and industry observers are estimating that the wind additions are going to be at 5-6 GW/year, as opposed to the previous annual additions of about 2 GW/year. Suzlon believes this revival will lead to long term demand of its turbines and EPC services.
The company offers other services like solar and wind farm development, which are excluded from core wind business and thus remain unprofitable.The other services that the company provides such as solar and wind farm development are not core wind business and therefore are not profitable.
Suzlon is also looking forward to a more aggressive move into renewable energy fields such as Suzlon 2.0 which is in addition to its core wind operations. These encompass so-called hybrid projects that integrate wind, solar and energy storage, which are much favored by utilities and commercial customers interested in 24-hour-a-day renewable energy.
The company observed that the customers are leaving behind standalone generation assets and going to integrated solutions that minimize the risk of intermittency and enhance grid reliability.
Increasing contribution to the world wind supply by India.
The Suzlon executives emphasized the increased presence of India in the world wind supply chain. India is now the largest contributor of global wind equipment export (approximately 10 percent), and the manufacturing is supported by local production and low prices. With the increasing demand of wind energy globally during the decarbonisation process, Suzlon will have a bigger role to play in export market.
Long-Term Outlook
As India aims to achieve non-fossil fuel capacity of 500 GW by 2030, the wind energy will be one of the cornerstones of the transition. Suzlon is optimistic that, regular auction pipelines, hybrid tenders, and repowering of the ancient wind farms will give the sector multi-year growth outlook.
