Greentech Lead India: Fedders Lloyd (FLC) is in the
initial talks with Invenergy, a wind power generation company in the U.S., to
develop wind farm projects in India and African nations like Tanzania and
Kenya.
The BR Punj-promoted FLC is looking for an equity
partnership with Invenergy for an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore for wind
farms.
“We are considering a foray into wind farm business
and have initiated talks with US-based Invenergy for a partnership. Besides
India, inquiries have also started pouring in from African countries such as
Tanzania and Kenya. This would attract investments to the tune of Rs 2,000
crore and we are looking for an equity partnership with the US firm,” said
N D Jain, head-wind energy business, Fedders Lloyd Corporation.
The first round of negotiations with Invenergy was held
earlier this year and the company expects to finalize the deal in the next
round of talks, scheduled to take place in June 2012.
FLC has operations for turnkey projects in the fields of
infrastructure, power, refinery and railways. The company had recently
announced its plans to invest Rs 200 crore in a phased manner for expanding its
wind tower making facility at Bharuch in Gujarat.
As part of the first phase, FLC has invested Rs 100 crore
at Bharuch facility to make 150 towers annually. The company has arranged funds
for the project through bank finance. The commercial production has started at
the facility and the first tower is scheduled to be delivered this month end.
Recently, Farooq Abdullah, union minister for new and
renewable energy and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi inaugurated new
facility of FLC. The plant is capable of manufacturing wind turbine powers up
to 3 MW and heavy precision fabrication of components up to 80 tons.
The group has an annual turnover of Rs 2,500 crore and
FLC contributes about Rs 700-800 crore towards total revenues of the group. The
company’s orderbook for wind tower business is full for the next three years
and is expected to contribute about 15 per cent to the total turnover of the
company by the end of fiscal 2013, according to a report in Business Standard.
In the Indian wind tower making business, only a few
organized players are active thereby making a huge scope for tower business.
The projected demand for wind towers in the country is huge.