Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Wind turbine gearbox manufacturing unit will come up at Coimbatore

— Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

A FILLIP TO WIND ENERGY: Ivan Brems, CEO of Hansen Transmissions International NV (second from left), exchanging the documents of the Memorandum of Understanding with Industries Secretary M.F. Farooqui (right), in the presence of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, in Chennai on Saturday. Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veerasamy (left) and Chief Secretary L. K. Tripathy are also in the picture.

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Government on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hansen Drives Ltd., a subsidiary of the Belgium-based Hansen Transmissions International N.V., to establish a wind turbine gearbox manufacturing facility at Karumathampatty near Coimbatore.

Hansen is an established designer, manufacturer and supplier of the wind turbine gearbox.

The Rs.1,500-crore unit will come up on 61 acres at the Hi Tech Engineering Special Economic Zone in Coimbatore. The promoter is Sulzon Infrastructure Ltd, part of Sulzon Group.

“The plant, which is expected to provide employment to more than 800 people by the end of 2010, envisages manufacturing gearboxes for 1.5MW-3.0 MW wind turbines. It will reach full capacity in 2012. The total installed capacity will be 2,500 gear units a year,” says a release from Hansen.

Hansen will apply the same production installations, process and methodology as it uses in its plants at Lommel and Edegem, Belgium.

The agreement was signed by Industries Secretary M.F. Farooqui and CEO of Hansen Transmissions International NV Ivan Brems, in the presence of Chief Minster M. Karunanidhi. Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veeraswami, Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy and Finance Secretary K. Gnanadesikan were present.

“There is a lot of support for the renewable energy industry in Tamil Nadu, and we are impressed by the level of technical talent available in Coimbatore,” Mr. Ivan Brems said.

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