Essar, German firm may tie up for wind turbine sets

Company may set up large wind farms with 5-Mw wind turbine capacity.

Essar Power is in talks with a number of European wind turbine manufacturing firms, including Germany's RE Power, to set up a joint venture partnership for manufacturing wind turbine sets.

"The company may initially invest Rs 100 crore and later scale up investments to around Rs 500 crore for the venture," industry sources said.

When contacted, Essar Power officials declined to comment.

RE Power manufactures one of the largest wind turbines in the world of 5 Mw capacity. It takes an investment of around Rs 5 crore for setting up 1 Mw of wind energy.

"Essar may set up RE Power's wind turbines, thus generating business for it. This will be the first step in the joint venture arrangement. Later, they may go in for manufacturing of wind turbines and market them in India," sources said.

The company may also set up large wind farms with 5-Mw wind turbine capacity. "The business model works like this "� once big wind farms are set up, other players may pick up equity in that venture," sources added.

Wind power generation capacity in the country is 5,300 Mw. India is the fourth largest market for wind energy in the world.

The annual market for wind power in India is around Rs 7,000 crore with a 40 per cent growth rate. Players in the wind energy sector are Suzlon, Enercon, NEG Micon and Vestas RRB, among others.