Firetrace International, a provider of fire suppression technology, has opened facilities in India and China.
China is targeting 1,200GW of wind and solar energy by the end of 2030, with a current capacity of 687GW at the end of 2021, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, while also hosting seven of the top ten wind turbine manufacturers in the world.
India is targeting 500GW of non-fossil power generation by the end of the decade with having 152.9 GW of renewable capacity installed in February 2022, generating the fourth-largest wind sector globally, Bloomberg NEF estimates.
Firetrace’s fire suppression technology will protect assets, communities, and investments if or when fire does occur in renewable energy assets.
Fires – which for the wind sector result in the total destruction of a turbine 90 per cent of the time – can cost up to $9 million in the most serious cases.
Firetrace’s new facility in India, which will also act as a fill station for fire suppression systems already installed in renewable plant infrastructure, is conveniently located close to four national highways, IGI Airport, and New Delhi.
The office will consist of a management team with 25 combined years of fire industry experience, 50+ engineers, and 10 sales, technical, administration and finance team members.
The Chinese hub is co-located in a facility with eight other companies all under Halma plc, Firetrace’s parent company, with shared office space housing up to 150 staff. Their presence will enable Firetrace’s clients in the region to take advantage of engineering resources, supply chain, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, and talent management to enable economies of scale.
Rob Barcik, President at Firetrace International, said: “Our systems – which are installed in 300,000 applications in more than 75 countries – detect fire at the source, activate automatically and suppress fires before they cause damage which can be costly to the safety of personnel working on wind farms, to the reputation of the industry, as well as to the balance sheets of owners and operators.”