Suzlon sees China leading wind power revival in 2011

China is all set to emerge as the wind energy hotspot of the future, according to Tulsi Tanti, chairman of Suzlon Energy —  the largest wind turbine manufacturer in Asia.

Tanti said the Chinese government’s aggressive target for renewables, including wind, will make China the centre of action for his firm in the coming years.

Suzlon has around 600 mw, or around a fifth of its total manufacturing capacity in China, but has failed to fully utilise the plant which has been running at around 25-30% capacity.

The Chinese government, meanwhile, has set an ambitious goal of increasing the country’s wind power capacity from around 20 gigawatt (gw) at the end of last year to 90 gigawatt by 2015 in its 12th five-year plan.

In comparison, India had around 16 gw of wind capacity at the end of last year.

“We expect our plant to be fully utilised from next year,” Tanti told investors.

Tanti, considered a pioneer of wind energy, said he was not worried about competing with local manufacturers as his own plant was based in China.

“We are bringing the Chinese price with German technology. We are quite comfortable that we will get more business from the China market,” he said.

Currently, around half of Suzlon’s 1.55 gw of orders are for India. The company is likely to surpass the 1.2 gw target it had set for the domestic market this year, going by the management’s guidance.

The Indian market, one of the largest in the world for wind turbine firms, is likely to expand to around 3 to 3.6 gw in 2011, Tanti added.

Wind energy was one of the worst affected sectors of the industry during the economic turmoil of the last two years.

Meanwhile, the company posted a smaller-than-expected loss in the second quarter as increased domestic orders helped offset weak demand in Europe.

The loss widened to Rs370 crore from Rs360 crore in the year-ago period, compared to the Rs430 crore average loss estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

“Our order book has increased over the last two months,” chief financial officer Robin Banerjee told Bloomberg. Orders jumped 35% to $5.4 billion from last year. “Primarily bookings have come from India,” Banerjee said.