JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #116 - October 2017 - 41

Inside India's wind turbine industry

Chairman of the Indian Wind Turbine
Manufacturing Association (IWTMA),
most buyers used to be corporate groups
whose main business was not wind energy,
so manufacturers took care of everything
from development to manufacturing to construction and maintenance. The dynamics
have changed now that Indian Power Trading
(IPT) has stepped in. The product is reliable
and the service backup is good.
Wind-turbine manufacturing in India is more
than 75% localized, and is under tremendous
cost competition today. The supply chain
and production lines currently focus on good
quality and cost-effective products.

but to reach the targeted 30% (116 GW) , an
additional 5 GW of flexible generators would
need to be installed.
The third challenge is inland transportation.
Wind blade length is increasing with each
new model, to tap more energy from the
wind. Both the design and the condition of
Indian roads pose a big challenge to manufacturers.
As Indian manufacturers adopt new wind
turbine technology, a simultaneous focus
on encouraging local material production,
stabilizing the grid and improving the road
infrastructure will prove to be a boon to the
industry.
Support framework and policy
Offshore wind
MNRE announced India's offshore wind policy in October 2015. FOWIND (Facilitating
Offshore Wind in INDia) has undertaken a
comprehensive assessment of two coastal
areas, a project that is co-financed by EU. The
first offshore platform is planned for the Gulf
of Khambhat. Following the assessment, the
first call for tender is likely to be announced
in 2019. Success will usher in a new era of
opportunities in India.
Green Energy Corridor
The government has announced a Green
Energy Corridor initiative, which should
facilitate transfer of power from windy states
to India's other regions or states.
Conclusions
India's installed wind energy capacity has
steadily grown, placing the country among
the global leaders, and there is still great
potential in terms of resource availability and
requirements.
India has also matured in terms of wind turbine manufacturing. Given the limited cash
flows, the industry has managed to survive
through innovations in manufacturing.
The future of Indian wind power depends
equally on the evolution of new technology,
materials and processes. The performance of
the industry should be catalysed by supportive government policies on grid stabilization
and financing.

N°116 October 2017

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Feature Wind Ennergy

Innovations and practices
- In 2009, blades for a 2+ MW turbine
weighed around 14-15 metric tons (MT).
Since then, they have been optimized, mainly
through the use of carbon epoxy composites
for key prefabs, and now weigh only 9-10
MT.
- Resin infusion is used for 90% of wind
blade manufacturing in India. The use of
prepreg technology is mostly restricted to
a few parts.
- PET foam has replaced PVC foam for
some designs, as it absorbs less resin and
provides better strength-to-weight ratio.
- All-composite nacelles are starting to
replace aluminum nacelles in Indian
installations.
- A few manufacturers are conducting trials
with H glass, in lieu of E glass. H glass is
believed to have 20% higher strength and
15% higher modulus, with only a marginal
change in price.
- Suzlon announced the use of a combination of lattice and tubular towers in its
S111 120m wind turbine. The hybrid
structure offers weight and cost benefits.
- A recent trend in India is to harness energy
from stable, high-velocity winds at higher
hub heights, in tandem with larger blades.
The increase in KW per turbine lowers the
unit cost, since the installation cost will be
amortized by the energy generated.
- Many key manufacturers have commenced
use of special purpose machines (SPM)
and robotics for post-bonding operations,
mostly for drilling applications, although
they are also used in blade turning and
manufacturing assistance.

Challenges
Despite the exponential growth of wind
turbines in India, the domestic market for
primary and secondary raw materials for
manufacturing fell short.
- E glass is the major reinforcement in the
Indian wind turbine industry. While the
country has quite a few weavers, Binani 3B
is one of the only major glass yarn manufacturers. There are no S-glass or carbon
fibre manufacturers in India.
- Secondary materials such as core materials like foam, balsa, etc., are also mostly
imported.
- Most Indian epoxy resins are made by synthesis of imported DEGBA monomers.
- Globally, hot-melt prepregs are finding
a place in wind blades, although the high
cost of importing them tends to offset
their benefits. Indian manufacturers use a
very limited prepreg for sub-structures.
The dependence on imports for raw materials is due not just to the unavailability of
suitable manufacturing units to cater to, but
also to an inability to specify the raw material
during the design stage. A focused approach
in technology development that includes
design, material technology and process
evolution needs to be found.
The second challenge facing India is the lack
of a sophisticated inter-state grid. Seven out
of 29 Indian states of India have 97.5% of the
cumulative installed wind energy capacity.
There is need of a facility to transfer the power from these windy states to other parts of
the country. Furthermore, if generators were
distributed over a wider geographical area,
the wind variability and intermittency could
be used to better advantage. More sophisticated technology to connect wind-generated
power to the conventional power grid is also
required.
As Indian manufacturers adopt new wind
turbine technology, a simultaneous focus
on encouraging local material production,
stabilizing the grid and improving the road
infrastructure will prove to be a boon to the
industry.
In order to maintain grid operating norms
and maintain grid security, balancing power
supply reserves is also required. Enough
flexible generating sources are available (32
GW required, 43 GW available) to accommodate 15% (74 GW) of renewable energy.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #116 - October 2017