Inox Wind says will put up 500 mw; industry consolidation inevitable

Has 300 Mw orders, worth roughly Rs 1,800 crore, already on its books

Inox Wind, part of the $2-billion Inox group, is planning to do 500 Mw of wind power plants this year with 300 Mw orders, worth roughly Rs 1,800 crore, already on its books. The company is the fourth largest wind equipment manufacturer in the country.

India's wind installations dropped 47 per cent in 2012-13 to 1.7 gigawatts of wind capacity after the expiry of government incentives, according to Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association. This happened even as globally, a record 48.4 gigawatts of new wind capacity was added in 2012.

In a tough market where the industry leader Suzlon fell to the second rank, Inox is aiming to be the second biggest company in just two years of operations. “We are looking at doing 500 Mw in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh which will be the main market for Inox Wind this year. We may do a little bit of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh,” Devash Jain, director, Inox Wind told Business Standard. The company has done 320 Mw so far.

Jain said they were likely to achieve 500 Mw in about a month of which 100 Mw would be for its group company Inox Renewables that is putting up farms in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and has currently has 320 Mw generation capacity.

InoX Wind has set up nacelles and hubs plants in Una district of Himachal Pradesh. Besides, it has r otor blades and tower manufacturing facility in Gujarat. Its nacelles and hub plant can do 800 Mw and blade and tower 500 Mw which would be expanded to 800 Mw by next year. “A lot would depend on the notification of generation based (tax) incentive (GBI) for the industry,” he said.

Jain said with accelerated depreciation benefit going away, there would be consolidation in the industry. “There are 26 manufacturers in the country with the top five controlling 94 per cent of the market. Fundamentally, it is unsustatinable. Most of the players are under losses. What is important, GBI must come back.” The budget had announced GBI but it is yet to be notified. Industry is pushing aggressively. We are hopeful GBI will be announced in June. To get additional 1500 Mw generation capacity, the incentive is needed, he said. “There are other constraints like power evacuation and land but those are routine problems which will be taken care of by the states.”