Suzlon eyes building new wind turbine factory in Europe
Suzlon will build its first wind turbine factory in Europe if its new push for orders on the continent is sufficiently successful, the Indian manufacturing giant’s vice chair told Recharge.
Girish Tanti was speaking at the recent WindEurope annual conference, which took place this year in Madrid.
Suzlon this year launched its ‘Suzlon 2.0’ strategy, under which it wants to become a full-scope renewables player spanning wind, solar, battery storage and project development and delivery.
It also named a new CEO, adopted a new management structure, and appointed wind industry veteran Paulo Soares as its new Europe president. At the WindEurope summit, Suzlon unveiled its new Blue Sky turbine platform with 5MW and 6.3MW models aimed at Europe and other international markets.
On how Suzlon plans to supply turbines to the European market, Tanti told Recharge that the manufacturer currently enjoys a “close cooperation” with European players in its sub-supplier network.
“We will leverage the European supply chain to the max. And we will go by how the market demand is and build [turbines] as a global product.”
If Suzlon wins sufficient orders, Tanti said the supplier will “of course” build a factory in Europe to supply turbines.
“It would be that way. So I think the market dynamics will decide how we go about doing that.”
On where Suzlon might choose to build a factory in Europe, Tanti said it is “a bit early at this point in time” and that Suzlon must “first focus on securing some orders.”
“Where and how” those orders arrive and their size and scale will determine where Suzlon can leverage its existing partners in Europe, and where it needs to “probably do something on our own,” he added.
Suzlon’s European headquarters are in Denmark and it has subsidiaries in Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Romania.
Suzlon was among the earlier globetrotting pioneers of the wind industry and has 21GW installed in 17 countries – mostly in India but including about 6GW in markets such as the US and Australia.
It retrenched to its Indian homeland after several financial crises that forced it to fall back on the goodwill of its lenders to keep operating. At its lowest points in 2019 and 2020 production at times dwindled to almost zero, with Suzlon crippled operationally by a $1.5bn debt pile.
Suzlon is now profitable again with a sizeable order book, helped by the growth in wind power under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s huge renewable energy targets.
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