India's first export of wind turbine to USA by Suzlon Energy

Our Corporate Bureau
09 October 2002

The first consignment of two wind turbines of 1.25mw each was flagged off from Daman by Union Minister of State for Power Jayawantiben Mehta and Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Rajeev Pratap Rudy. They were accompanied by dignitaries from various states apart from Daman, representatives from state electricity boards, nodal agencies and bankers among others.

Transporting this giant-sized wind turbine, which stands at 65m, weighing over 60 tonnes, with blades of about 110 ft in length (comparable to a 14-storey building), from Daman to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai itself is a Herculean task. The onward journey to Houston, Texas, will be aboard one of the world's largest ships.

While the modern wind energy technology has been dominated mainly by the US and Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, this endeavour registers a first time south-north cooperation, and thus opening up new vistas in a highly specialised field for India. This has been achieved through continual efforts put up by Suzlon through establishment of research and development centres in the European Union and world-class manufacturing facilities at Daman.

The OECD countries, mainly Denmark and Germany, have focused export of wind turbines as a major trade commodity through strong government support. To cite an example, a country as small as Denmark exports wind turbines to the tune of $3000 million per year. India, with its mature wind energy industry, can also achieve similar export earnings.

Today the world wind energy market is growing at the rate of 30-35 per cent per year. With India having a competitive edge on production costs, the country is at a take-off stage for substantial overseas exports. In fact, India has the capability to produce the most technologically advanced wind turbines and has the potential of being the wind energy super power in the world, because of the efforts put up by manufacturers like Suzlon Energy.

One of the major issues in exporting wind turbine from India is with respect to high logistics costs, which offset the competitive edge of lower production costs. At this stage, the government should provide the stimuli by formulating a policy conducive for exports, as was done to boost the information technology sector.