The Chennai-based Rajalakshmi Group, which is better known for the educational institutions it runs, is getting into manufacture of wind turbines, with technology from Vensys of Germany.  

Rajalakshmi Renewables Pvt Ltd is working towards launching a 4 MW turbine, through a subsidiary, Ventus Power. The company is likely to start selling the machines in 2025, Abhay S Meganathanm, Managing Director, Rajalakshmi Renewables, told businessline today.  

The manufacturing plant is likely to come up at Gummidipoondi near Chennai with an investment that is being worked out. The company might “hit the ground running” by buying components and gradually get into manufacture. 

Vensys is known for its permanent magnet, direct-drive technology. This would be a second coming for Vensys. Earlier, the Chennai-based Regen Powertech was producing and selling machines with Vensys know-how, until the company lost its life in the ultra-low tariff regime ushered in by ‘competitive bidding’ mechanism of discovering wind power tariffs. 

Incidentally, Madhusudan Khemka, the founder of Regen Powertech, is also involved in the Ventus Power venture. This is the third come-back for Khemka, whose first foray into the wind industry was through NEPC, the first Indian wind energy company, set up by Khemka’s uncle. Khemka moved out of NEPC and ventured into IT and BPO, but later came back to the wind industry to set up Regen Powertech. 

After about five years of listlessness, the Indian wind industry is looking up again, thanks to the government’s promise of capacity auctions of about 10 GW every year for the next 5 years. The country is likely to see wind power capacity addition of about 5GW this year—a level of activity not seen since 2017-18. India has about 44 GW of installed wind power capacity and the hope is that the number would rise to 100 GW by 2030. 

Although, there is more than 15 GW of turbine manufacturing capacity in India, many of the machines are designed for overseas market and “not quite right” for India, Sumant Sinha, Chairman and CEO, ReNew, said at the Windergy 2023 conference on Wednesday. 

Meganathan also noted that there aren’t enough turbines available in India that are suitable for the low-wind-speed regimes in the country, adding that Vensys technology is “tried and tested” for the Indian market. 

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