Vadodara, 11 January, 2012

Europe’s second-largest wind-turbine maker firm Spanish group Gamesa Corp. Tecnologica SA (GAM) has opened a turbine blade-manufacturing plant in Gujarat’s Vaddoara as part of a plan to boost production in the wind energy market.

The company, with about 30 factories worldwide, started production at Vadodara with an investment of 25 million euros ($32 million), it said today in a statement. The facility, which created 157 jobs, will primarily supply India’s northern states. The plant will produce blades for Gamesa’s G5X-850kW and G9X-2.0MW turbines. It will reach the capacity to turn out 390 blades per year by 2013.

The factory is part of a 60 million-euro investment plan announced by Zamudio, Spain-based Gamesa in March to strengthen its manufacturing base in India to tap rising demand in the country’s wind market. India now accounts for 20 percent of the megawatts it sells around the world after almost tripling in a year, it said.

“This marks another step towards cementing our manufacturing base in India, where we are also implementing our best technology and practices in wind turbine production,” says Gamesa India managing director Ramesh Kymal.

Gamesa has been manufacturing in India since early 2010, when it opened a facility to assemble nacelles. Last year, it opened a wind tower factory in a joint venture and plans to start another nacelle plant in Tamil Nadu.

Gamesa has become the third-largest producer in the market, with a 10% share.

This could rise to up to 20% in 2012. In the third quarter of 2011, India accounted for 20% of Gamesa’s global sales by MW.

Gamesa also acts as a developer in India, with a portfolio of more than 2.1GW of projects at varying stages of progress.