With an installed capacity of over 10,500 MW, India is currently the fifth-largest generator of wind power in the world. As it adds about 1,200 MW of wind capacity per year, the potential is far from depleted, but developers are faced with challenges in erecting the turbines in remote areas.
Unlike their Western counterparts, Indian developers often must find innovative means to transport large turbines through narrow, crowded roads to ill-equipped, hilly sites. “Non-availability of transport and cranes, lack of experienced manpower and infrastructure [lacking] such things as cement mixers, electrical lines, substations, new roads and cables, distinguish India from its Western counterparts,” says a spokesman for Pune-based Suzlon Energy, the world’s fifth- largest wind turbine maker.