Siemens Gamesa took 2019’s top spot as leading wind turbine supplier in India as installations by troubled domestic champion Suzlon plunged, according to new data from research group BloombergNEF.
Siemens Gamesa accounted for 30% of the 2,4GW added in India last year, said BloombergNEF, with Suzlon slipping to 19% from its year-earlier market-leading 41%.
The Spanish-German OEM prospered at Suzlon’s expense in a year that also saw it scoop 453MW of orders from developer Alfanar that were originally destined for insolvent OEM Senvion, said report author and BloombergNEF associate Atin Jain.
Suzlon’s installations collapsed by 50% to 460MW in 2019 as it felt the operational backdraft of its precarious financial position.
Suzlon is currently in the throes of discussions with its lenders over a restructuring package for its massive debts, and has previously admitted that its “operations are at a subdued level with minimal allocation of funding as we are trying to fix our capital structure”.
Jain said ongoing problems for Suzlon into 2020 could spell further opportunities for Siemens Gamesa – whose CEO said last year that the Indian market was showing signs of life – and other OEMs. Siemens Gamesa recently named Navin Dewaji as its new CEO in India, taking over from long-serving local boss Ramesh Kymal.
Vestas was in third place with an 11% share and 350MW commissioned, a reduction on 2018’s figure.
Inox Wind and GE took 11% each and China’s Envision 10% of the market after delivering its first two projects in India. However, Envision “has not announced any more order wins for projects in India and is expected to focus on delivering turbines in its home market in 2020,” said Jain.
BloombergNEF expects 2.6GW of new wind to be added in 2020, a figure roughly in line with expectations of other analysts.
Several commentators have said the current rate of market growth means the country has little chance of meeting its headline goal of 60GW installed by 2022, up from about 37GW now.
