Suryachakra Power Corporation Ltd, a Hyderabad-based power generation player, has forayed into the wind energy sector by signing an MoU with C Sivasankaran-owned Sterling Group's Winwind Power Energy Private Ltd. The agreement involves setting up a 250 MW wind energy project in Tamil Nadu.
WinWind Power Energy will bring the 1 MW wind energy generators and also provide operation and maintenance of the project for 10 years after completion of the 1 year warranty period, Suryachakra said in a filing with BSE. WinWind has also secured the land identified with potential wind data and transfer it to Suryachakra Green Power.
WinWind Power Energy, which a 100% subsidiary of Finland-based WinWind Oy, also plans to take upto a 20% stake in the project coming under Suryachakra Green Power Pvt Ltd. WinWind will also help the firm raise debt from European financial institutions for the project.
Serial entrepreneur C Sivasankaran had acquired a 40% stake in WinWind in in 2006 and later took a controlling position. WinWinD is involved in the design, development and assembly of technologically advanced 1 and 3 MW wind turbines. The firm has assembly factories in Finland and India. Besides Siva Group, it also has investments from Abu Dhabi's Masdar and Finnish Industry Investment Ltd.
The share price of Suryachakra Power reached a high of Rs 15.6 on Monday, up by nearly 15% in the morning trade before giving up some of the gains and was trading at Rs 14.68 at noon.
Suryachakra has power generation assets across renewable energy (biomass, solar, hydro) besides thermal generation assets. One of its group firms, Lahari Power & Steels Ltd (LPSL), also raised funding from Luxembourg-based fund Climate Change Investment II in 2009.
India, which has one of the investment in the wind generation capacity globally behind United States and China, has seen several major development projects announced this year. Suzlon Energy has received an order worth $1.28 billion for supply of wind turbines aggregating to 1,000 MW to Caparo Energy (India). It has also got orders to set up, operate and maintain 150 MW of windfarms for Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group company, for $191 million. Other international players like Gamesa and Vestas are also active in the Indian market.