Company plans to set up a new manufacturing unit in Brazil this year.
Wind turbine manufacturer Kenersys owned by Kalyani Group is expanding its footprint in the USA and Brazil. Kenersys has recently opened its first turbine of 2.5 MW for Lincoln Electric in Ohio, North America. While the turbine is manufactured in Germany, it has invested $5.9 million in the US. The company is now eying the Brazil market and looking for the right partner for its expansion plans.
"We are planning to set up a new manufacturing unit in Brazil this year and one in the USA the next year. Brazil will be a big market for the company. USA is also a vibrant market but currently we do not have a manufacturing facility in US. Despite the slowdown, other domestic companies like GE have done some good business over there and we are looking forward for more orders in the North America region," said Paul Soares, global CEO Kenersys.
Talking about the Brazil market, he said that Brazil is also an ideal place to develop business and Kenersys is looking forward to expand in Brazil. There is plenty of land is available in Brazil, along with a coastal line of 9000 kms. It also has good wind conditions whereby it can generate 1, 50, 000 MW whereas the current output is only 2000 MW.
Commenting on the company's expansion plans in India he said, "Along with Maharashtra, Kenersys is planning to expand in the states like Gujarat and Tamil Nandu. We are setting up a turbines of 2.0 MW and 2.4 MW capacity at seven locations in Gujarat. There is plenty of land and infrastructure is available in these two states. The company is also planning few projects in Rajasthan."
The company has acquired land near Rajkot in Gujarat and it has plans to add 60 MW in 2011 and 70 MW by 2012.
India accounts for two-third of Kenersys' total installed capacity of 74 MW, followed by Sweden with 20 MW, Germany with 15 MW and the US with 2.5 MW, its first in that country. In terms of units of turbines installed globally, in the past 14 months, the number of installations have gone up from four to 74. Having done 45 MW capacity installation so far, the company plans to install 150 MW capacity by December 2012.
Speaking about some of the other issues specific to India's wind energy sector that are constraining growth Soares also emphasised on that in India there are different policies and tariffs of each state and the lack of a national grid code. Moreover, wind farms are privately owned while the grid to which they wheel the power is publicly owned, by the state-owned power utility.
He added that this causes problems such as those faced by wind power companies in Tamil Nadu where the weak grid cannot cope with high speed winds and thus asks the operators to shut the wind turbines whenever wind speeds are high.
