Suzlon banks on growing U.S. wind market

Dec. 17, 2009 at 5:53 PM

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The world's third-largest wind power company, India's Suzlon Energy, is banking on growth in the U.S. on- and offshore market to come back from a rocky 2009.

"We are expecting more forthcoming business in the U.S. market -- for on and offshore," Tulsi Tanti, the founder and head of Suzlon, said in an interview with United Press International on the sidelines of the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

After India, the United States is the second-largest market for Suzlon, which was founded in 1995 and has since grown to a company with around 15,000 employees and $5 billion in sales.

Some 2,000 MW worth of Suzlon turbines are turning in 12 U.S. states, but the company has had trouble with some of its blades cracking and had to spend $100 million to replace them.

This has only added to the more than $2.5 billion in debt the company has amassed due to an aggressive expansion strategy and slowing turbine sales in 2009 because of the global economic crisis.

Tanti, 51, said he is now banking on a green energy boom that would provide his company with "good high growth in the United States from the second half of 2010."

The charismatic entrepreneur lauded U.S. President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package and what he called a "very good" overall policy framework that provides "clear economic visibility for the next three years."

Suzlon will try to outfit some of the 250 GW of onshore sites still up for grabs in the United States, and also look at America's offshore potential, Tanti told UPI.

"Opportunities are growing. A lot of companies are interested" in jump-starting the U.S. offshore market, he said.

Tanti added he had dispatched a team from REpower, a Europe-based maker of large on- and offshore turbines and owned to 92 percent by Suzlon, to the United States to locate offshore sites for development within "three or four years."

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Stefan Nicola, UPI Europe Correspondent

Source: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2009/12/17/Suzlon-banks-on-growing-US-wind-market/UPI-30981261090411/

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