Danish wind turbine blades maker LM Wind Power commissioned its second manufacturing facility in India at Halol near Vadodara with an investment of €25 million (about ₹190 crore).
With the commissioning of the new plant, LM Wind Power’s total installed capacity in the country has increased to 1.6 Gigawatts (Gw) per annum, which includes 1 Gw from its existing facility at Dabaspet in Karnataka.
Buoyed by the government’s emphasis on renewable energy sources for generating electricity, the company has set an ambitious revenue target of ₹1,200 crore for 2016 against ₹760 crore in 2015.
“We are very optimistic about the growth of the wind energy sector in India with the government setting a target of 60 Gw by 2022. We have over 20 years of experience of operations in India,” said Marc de Jong, CEO of the company.
The plant, spread across 50 acres, employs over 400 workers, mostly recruited from nearby villages.
Commenting on the growth prospects in India, Niraj Bisaria, Head, India operations, said, “We have our order book fully booked by domestic customers alone. Our revenues were ₹750 crore in 2015, which we expect to increase to ₹1200 crore by the end of 2016.” The company also has a global technical centre for research, development and services in Bangalore. It plans to enhance its existing installed capacity of 1.6 Gw per annum, to 2.5 Gw per annum in the next two-three years with an additional estimated investment of €13 million.
At the Halol plant, the company has capacity to build blades up to 60 meters in length.The plant began producing wind turbine blades one month ahead of schedule.