Gamesa bets on Karnataka to meet wind energy target

As part of this, Gamesa will put up 50 MW of wind turbines capacity in the State between now and March 2012. Mr Ramesh Kymal, Gamesa India’s Managing Director, told Business Line that while the transmission infrastructure in Karnataka was not as good as in Maharashtra, it was a lot better than in Tamil Nadu. He also noted that the tariff in Karnataka was better.

Gamesa, which is primarily in the business of manufacturing wind turbines, also develops wind farms. Typically, most generating assets in the farm would be owned by different investors — Gamesa’s customers and Gamesa would maintain the farm for the investors.

“As part of the first phase of 30 MW, the company has just commissioned 7 MW in the last two weeks and expects the entire farm to start generation by March, 2012,” Mr Kymal said. The wind farm is being put up near the town of Chikodi in Belgaum. Gamesa will add another 25 MW from a similar wind farm at Kiroshi, close to Chikodi.

It takes Gamesa roughly Rs 6 crore to put up a MW of wind power, and when the wind farms in Chikodi are fully operational, Gamesa would have catalysed investments of Rs 300 crore into the wind power sector in Karnataka. The company has used its flagship 850 KW machines and the farm would generate 60 million units of electricity a year.

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