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• Suzlon Energy, the largest wind energy producer in the country, is planning to establish a production facility near Madurai.To be established at an investment of about Rs 50 crore, the facility will manufacture rotor blades for low-wind turbines and would become operational in 2012, according to Mr Tulsi R. Tanti, Chairman and Managing Director, Suzlon Energy Ltd.

LOW WIND SITES

• Speaking to Business Line on the sidelines of a management meeting of the company held here on Wednesday, he said that in Tamil Nadu, which is a pioneer in the production of wind energy in the country, high wind energy sites have got almost exhausted and the potential of low wind sites needed to be augmented.To have the best use of wind energy produced in the State, significant investment is required to be made in grid infrastructure by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). The company would be willing to assist in the establishment of the lines and sub-stations required for the purpose.Tamil Nadu has a good potential to produce off-shore wind power and such units of 6 MW size have come up in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Belgium. The company is working on pursuing that potential in the country in the years ahead, he added.
• He said that the farm sector and the small and medium enterprises sector (SMEs) are increasingly taking to wind energy as the production could be utilised immediately without the need for transmission across areas.Necessarily smaller in size, these could be established on one to two acre site and the cost factor compared to other forms of energy is cheaper in the long run. Farmers in Gujarat and Maharashtra have taken to this.As far as SMEs are concerned, it becomes a hedging against the increasing power cost and mills in Tiruppur in the State have invested in this. The company assists in providing end-to-end solution for 20 years in establishing and maintaining them, he said.He said his company believed in sustainable development with inclusive growth and in terms of corporate social responsibility concentrated on healthcare, solid waste management, increasing green cover and integrated agro-based livelihood programmes. As a multinational company, the order book stood at $7 billion and efforts are on to bring down the debt-equity ratio substantially in the next few years to 1:1.

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