‘We cannot allow them to keep polluting environment.’
With the government going strong after renewable energy resources, Wind energy segment sees huge opportunity ahead. State governments too are encouraged to increase the share on clean energy in the overall power generation mix. How is the future like, Devansh Jain Executive Director, Inox Wind Limited speaks to InfralinePlus about the road ahead. Excerpts.
There seems huge enthusiasm in India to go after renewable energy generation sources, but Solar seems to have gained the maximum from this changed environment. What kind of contribution do you see from the Wind Energy Sector in country’s overall power generation basket.
Absolutely, Solar has hogged the limelight because it is the new kid on the block and in terms of percentage its growth attracts eyes balls. But we have to keep in mind that it moving with a low base, unlike Wind energy which is a mature technology and the policy too is stable.
The goal for wind power is close to a 60 Gigawatt over the next five years, which means a huge potential for companies operating in the sector.
Uncertainty of power generation is probably the biggest challenge that Wind Power generation faces. Some state governments also are not very comfortable with grid connectivity for wind power generation units. What are your views?
Uncertainty is there in Solar power generation too. But the bigger question is can we allow somebody to keep polluting the environment. Clean energy will have their limitations for example plant load factor (PLF) for Solar is around 20 percent, whereas for wind its 25 percent. So, we will have to bet on clean energy generation resources.
The question is not whether somebody likes it or not. The policy direction clearly states the way forward. One can see the example of states such as Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan where wind energy’s contribution is encouraging.
The government is keen on ‘Make in India’ products in almost every segment. How do you see market dynamics changing for clean energy generation segment?
Wind in India is completely ‘Make in India.’ Our focus has been on building a massive execution capability across multiple states. We are virtually the largest player today across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and going strong in other states too. We are looking at making Andhra Pradesh a large market for us and obviously the fourth piece which is extremely crucial from longevity perspective is operations and maintenance capability.
We now see more and more state governments focusing on clean energy resources, where do you see power cost going?
With technology the cost of power generation would definitely go down. I feel the cost of energy generation should reduce between 3 to 5 percent in the next 3 years and consumers too will benefit from the reduction as companies will pass on part of it to the consumers. So, the cost of power should go down as we improve on the existing technology.
Kindly share your plans on manufacturing front. What kind of capacity do you plan to build in medium and long term?
In the last few years, we have grown at a CAGR of almost 75 percent per annum and going forward we expect a very-very strong momentum on the growth. When you have a very large base, growth rates cannot be as large as they have been in the past.
We need to have a very strong pipeline of projects because the way the Indian market works for IPPs or utilities simply come to turbine manufacturers and expect us to do the entire turnkey piece. It simply means that we do land acquisition, supply turbines, erect them, commission those turbines and then do O&M for the next 20 years. We have created a huge pipeline of our inventory of project heights.
How do you view the competition especially from Chinese companies?
In our sector there is no threat from outside. There are about 5 Chinese companies, which have less than one percent share put together. See, the size of the components we talk in wind sector is too big and importing them will not make any sense as the import cost will far offset the cost advantage one could get. They can’t match our price.
Despite government’s focus on clean sources of energy, there are not many options in long term financing of projects.
Funds are not an issue for clean energy segment. Our technology is mature and going forward fund agencies no more want to fund polluting industries. So, the funds available for the power sector will come to clean energy generation segment. That is not an area of worry for us.