Local industry in Bharuch is expected to get a boost with cooling products maker Fedders Lloyd Corporation (FLC) announcing its foray into the wind turbine component sector, by setting up a tower manufacturing facility in Bharuch district of Gujarat.

The BR Punj-promoted FLC has set up a wind turbine tower manufacturing facility, having annual production capacity of up to 250 towers, at Jambusar in Bharuch district of Gujarat with an investment of Rs 200 crore.

"We shall roll out the first wind turbine tower from our Jambusar facility by this month end. In the first phase, we shall be producing 150 towers annually for wind turbines up to 3 MW from here," said Nemichandra D Jain, head of Wind Energy, FLC. According to industry, the Central government has set up an ambitious target of having 20,000 MW of installed wind generation capacity under the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), against the current installed capacity of 13,000 MW across the country. The production of wind turbine components is projected to triple over the next few years as India aims to have an installed capacity of 4,000 MW annually over the next five years to achieve the 12th Plan target of 20,000 MW, industry sources said.

According to FLC, considering the organised players into wind turbine component manufacturing in India and the projected demand, there would still be shortage of 1,200 towers annually. The company is negotiating with a leading wind farm developer in US to jointly develop sites in India and South Africa and expects to seal a deal by June this year.