Climate change impact makes manufacturer look at new turbine for low wind speeds
- India’ wind energy generation during this year’ peak season was the worst ever due to low wind speeds on account of an erratic summer monsoon
NEW DELHI: In what may help India’ wind energy generation impacted by low wind speeds due to climate change, wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has introduced a new turbine targeted at low and ultra-low wind conditions.
This comes in the backdrop of India’ wind energy generation during this year’ peak season being the worst ever due to low wind speeds on account of an erratic summer monsoon, Mint reported earlier.
“To help meet the growing demand, Vestas is introducing the V155-3.3 MW turbine optimised for low and ultra-low wind conditions. The V155-3.3 MW was introduced by Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen in a meeting today with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi,” Vestas said in a statement on Tuesday.
The meeting comes at a time when India is trying to attract global manufacturing companies that are exploring a China plus one strategy for production. Vestas has a manufacturing base in India and will use the new facilities for production ramp-up to export these turbines to other countries as well. The prototype for the new turbine will be installed by the third quarter of 2021 and the production may begin by the first quarter of 2022.
“Vestas will increase its already prominent manufacturing footprint in India by establishing a new converter factory in Chennai and expanding its current blade factory in Ahmedabad. These investments follow our previously announced new nacelle and hub factory in Chennai, which is currently under construction,” the statement added.
India is the world’ fourth largest wind market and has an installed wind power capacity of 38 gigawatt (GW) and seeks to produce 60 GW from wind power plants by March 2022. The country is running what will become the world’s largest clean energy programme, with an aim of having 175 GW of clean energy capacity by 2022.
Power and new and renewable energy minister Raj Kumar Singh on Tuesday said that 38.5% of India’ energy capacity is from non-fossil sources. This is expected to further go up to 60% by 2030, he added.
Due to climate change, rainfall patterns and warming are changing, along with the changes in the wind regime, leading to variability in wind-speeds. India’ wind power generation has been down around 40% during the peak wind season that begins in June and ends in September, and has impacted the firms having major wind power portfolios. The peak season accounts for around 3/4th of India’ annual wind power generation.
Catch all the Industry News, Banking News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
Business NewsIndustryEnergyClimate change impact makes manufacturer look at new turbine for low wind speeds
First Published:7 Oct 2020, 08:12 AM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High