Suzlon Energy, one of the pioneers of wind power in India, said it has finished commissioning its entire solar order book of 340 megawatt, and will focus on hybrid solar-wind projects going forward.
Out of the 340 MW erected, 210 MW was erected in Telangana, 60 MW in Rajasthan and 70 MW in Maharashtra.
The Rajasthan project was won from NTPC, while the Maharashtra project was won from the Solar Energy Corporation of India or SECI, it said.
Suzlon will provide operation and maintenance (O&M) services for these projects for 25 years.
Suzlon is not among the bigger contractors when it comes to standalone solar power projects in India, but has a sizeable market share in the wind energy field.
Solar power, being a relatively simple technology involving the installation of panels and wires, is highly fragmented as a market and has seen the emergence of hundreds of developers in the last 2-3 years.
J.P. Chalasani, Group CEO of Suzlon said the company will focus more on hybrid solar-cum-wind projects going forward.
Such projects, comprising solar panels and wind turbines on the same tract of land, are more cost-efficient compared to standalone farms as both technologies can share common infrastructure such as inverters and cables, while giving an edge to players like Suzlon and INOX Wind.
Hybrid projects help “save on duplication of costs such as land and evacuation infrastructure,” said Chalasani, formerly with Reliance Power, and will also have better utilization of grid, due to complementary generation profile. Unlike solar-only farms, hybrid farms will continue to produce power at night when the sun is absent.
Chalasani said Suzlon has a large ‘land bank’ and will utilize it to put up the projects. “We have an edge due to our existing large land bank, technologically advanced products and nationwide operational and maintenance strength.”
“With the positive change in the Indian renewable energy landscape, we are confident that the volumes will witness significant growth across all sources of clean energy,” he added.