Indian Wind Companies foray into Solar

Indian wind turbine generator manufacturing companies such as Suzlon and Gamesa have started making investments in solar power project development and EPC works using their experience in execution of large scale wind power projects in India. However, these companies face stiff competition from other EPC companies such as L&T, Mahindra and others as the entry barriers into solar energy are much lower. These companies to not have the benefit of having inhouse production facilities of WTGs in solar, as most solar panels are imported from China, Malaysia and other places.

Read more about Wind Power in India here.

These companies have followed major wind power developers such as Mytrah, Renew, Green Infra into solar energy as the Indian government has made solar energy as the centre piece of its energy policy. Though the government is saying that it will pivot back to focus more on hdyro and wind energy, the falling prices of solar and its advantages have made solar energy as the key energy growth area.

Gamesa is now venturing into manufacturing high end 1500 volt solar inverters in its wind turbine manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. The competition in the manufacturing of solar inverters is much lower than solar panels and Indian manufacturing locations of Delta, ABB and others are dominant in the Indian market in comparison to solar panels which are mostly imported. Gamesa sees an opening in the manufacture of 1500 V inverters which are still growing as compared to normal solar inverters where the market is saturated. Gamesa which is a global leader in the manufacture of wind turbines is looking strategically to hedge its bets, as solar power becomes a large industry than wind power in India. It is expected that solar power capacity in India would see a future run rate of 10-15 GW addition annually, as compared to 3-4 GW for wind power.

Also read Best Solar Inverters for Residential Rooftops in India.

Gamesa cannot hope to compete in the making of solar panels so it is trying a different tack by making solar inverters. However, it remains to be seen how successful the company can be, as there is huge competition from players like ABB, Hitachi, SMA and others in the utility segment. These companies also have a good technological base which Gamesa does not have (though the merger with Siemens will help remove that disadvantage).

Read Australian Solar Inverters Review

The Indian solar inverter market for the utility segment will be around INR 5000 crore this year and it might increase to INR 10,000-150,000 crore in 5 years. It is a large market and it makes sense for Gamesa to invest, as even a small market share can translate into large volumes. The company also has a captive customer in the form of its own solar EPC division whci his planning to build 150 MW of solar capacity this year.

Suzlon which is the other large wind turbine maker along with Inox has not announced any plans of making any type of solar equipment though it has developed a couple of solar plants and has announced big plans to enter the solar and wind hybrid sector once the Indian policy is finalized. It will be interesting to see how these companies develop their plants for the solar sector going forward.