23 .01 .2012
India's GAIL picks Gamesa turbines as it begins wind push
Gamesa has won a 24.7MW order from Indian natural gas giant GAIL.
The order is for 29 of Gamesa’s G58-850kW turbines for a project in Palani, Tamil Nadu, with commissioning expected to take place in March 2012. The order follows a decision by GAIL India’s board to enter the wind market, with plans to build four 25MW wind farms across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states during the current financial year.
GAIL was formed in the 1980s as a Central Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) to build and operate the 1800km HVJ project, one of the largest gas pipelines in the world. It has since built a number of natural gas and LPG pipelines, LPG processing plants and petrochemical facilities, expanded into gas exploration and production inside and outside India, and acquired companies around the world. This is Gamesa’s first order from an Indian PSU. “We are glad to partner with GAIL India and look forward to playing a relevant role in decreasing India’s energy deficit,” says Ramesh Kymal, chairman & managing director of Gamesa India.
Gamesa recently opened a new manufacturing facility to make blades for its G5X-850kW and G9X-2.0MW turbines, and a tower factory built through the Windar Renewable Energy joint venture, in which the Spanish group owns a 32% stake. Gamesa says that India accounted for 20% of its megawatts sold worldwide in the third quarter of 2011, after the company’s sales in the country increased by 2.8 times from the same period a year earlier. It has become India’s third-largest turbine manufacturer in terms of market share since starting production in the country in early 2010. As a developer, Gamesa has a portfolio in India of more than 2.1GW of capacity at different stages of development.
Gamesa today also announced the sale of two operational French wind farms with a combined capacity of 16MW to Allianz Renewable Energy Partners. The two 8MW developments – Aussac, located in Region Poitou-Charentes, and Belrain in Lorraine – each consist of four Gamesa G90 2.0MW wind turbines. As a wind developer, Gamesa has brought 114MW of capacity on line in France, and has a project portfolio of 800MW at varying stages of development. As a turbine supplier, it has installed 640MW in the country to date. Gamesa’s wind farm development division has built 4.3GW of capacity in total, and has about 24.5GW in progress around the world.