Suzlon Energy Eyes Big Opportunity As India Looks To Double Wind Power Capacity In Five Years

India needs to double its current wind power generation capacity in the next five years to meet its decade-end target, presenting industry leader Suzlon Energy Ltd. with big growth opportunity.

"To meet the target of 100 GW wind energy capacity by 2030, the industry needs to double generation in five years from the current 48 MW. The industry is well poised to make it happen," Girish Tanti, vice-chairman and co-founder of Suzlon told NDTV Profit.

India's onshore wind capacity potential is one terawatt, and current generation is just 48 GW or 4% of the potential, he noted.

However, Tanti said offshore projects face cost challenges relative to onshore ones.

"Wind and solar are cost competitive to conventional source. But the cost of building offshore wind projects is three times that of onshore and likewise the generation benefits are not in proportion to scale up capacity in today's technology. The economic viability is still away which is why government is giving value gap funding to get the first of projects done," he said.

Because of this, the Suzlon co-founder sees offshore wind projects pick up only after 2030.

He also said the government can increase return on investment on renewable energy if transmission grid is optimised to supply power from hybrid solar-wind projects. "The challenge is to build infrastructure which can set up distributive generation across states to limit transmission costs."

On Budget 2025 expectations, Tanti said he wants the government to harmonise policies between wind and solar which will be key for industry to grow by keeping tariff costs low.

Suzlon Energy expects wind industry constraints around land acquisitions to ease from next financial year, according to executives in a post-earnings analyst call.

It projects India's wind commissioning at 3.5-4 GW this year, 6 GW next year, 7-8 GW in fiscal 2027, and around 10 GW in fiscal 2028.

A significant portion of its 5.5 GW order book is expected to be executed in the March quarter and next fiscal.

Suzlon Energy share price hit the upper circuit of 5% soon after market open on reporting a surge in its third-quarter net profit and getting a ratings upgrade from Nuvama. The brokerage firm upgraded Suzlon’s stock from 'hold' to 'buy', citing robust earnings and order book, and valuation comfort following recent price corrections.

Nuvama has set a target price of Rs 60 for Suzlon, implying a potential upside of 19% from its previous close. This target price is based on a 35 times multiple of Suzlon's earnings projection for fiscal 2027.

Suzlon Energy reported a 90% increase in its consolidated net profit for the third quarter of the current financial year, surpassing analysts' expectations. The wind turbine manufacturer posted a net profit of Rs 386 crore, higher than the Rs 350 crore forecast by analysts, as per an exchange filing on Tuesday.