Wind power in India: Gamesa sold 700 wind turbines

Gamesa Wind Turbines Pvt. Ltd. is building a factory in the southern city of Chennai and two facilities in the western city of Vadodara to manufacture wind-turbine parts, the Indian unit’s chairman, Ramesh Kymal, told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a news conference. The company already has a facility in Chennai to make rotor blades.

It will spend INR2.0 billion ($37.5 million) between now and December on the projects, Kymal said. The Indian unit has invested INR5.50 billion on its Indian facilities so far since January 2011, he added. He didn’t say by when the new facilities will become operational.

India is a key emerging market for Gamesa, Europe’s second-largest wind-turbine manufacturer by market value after Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWDRY), as it is facing a slump in demand in its traditional markets of the U.S. and Western Europe which are hurt by an economic slowdown.

Gamesa sold 8% of its wind turbines in Spain last year, compared with 39% three years earlier. Its largest markets now are China and India.

The local unit’s head of sales and marketing, K.V. Sajay, said it aims to increase its turbine sales by 40% from last year to 700 units in 2012. India is focusing on harnessing more energy from sources such as wind as it aims to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel.

The country’s installed renewable-energy capacity is about 24 GW and the government aims to increase it to 50 GW by 2020. India is an important Gamesa wind farm market, which currently sells all its wind turbines outside Spain. Last year it accounted for 19 percent of the megawatts sold by the Spanish wind power group.

By José Santamarta, www.gamesacorp.com/