The world's fifth largest wind turbine maker, Suzlon Energy, which has been grappling with quality issues with its rotor blades in the US and struggling to repay debt, finds itself in rough weather yet again -- this time in its home turf near Pune.
Suzlon's attempts to set up the largest wind park in the world at Dhule received a major setback after a group of locals in the region started an agitation demanding more money from the company for the acquired land for the project.
The situation reached flashpoint on Monday, when a group of people stormed the wind park and forced Suzlon to stop power generation at about 140 turbines. "We have forced them to stop turbines producing about 350 Mw," said Anil Mote, a former Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly who is spearheading the agitation against Suzlon in Dhule and Nandurbar areas.
Suzlon declined to reveal the extent of damages, losses and land in its possession in the region, but said such incidents would ultimately harm the interests of the very people these individuals claim to represent. By stopping power generation that would have fed homes and industries, they were also harming the people of Maharashtra, the company said.
A company spokesperson said similar "agitations" in the past had forced wind energy projects away from Maharashtra.
The company has created an installed capacity of about 650 Mw in the Dhule-Nandurbar region in the last two-three years and its clients include large companies such as British Petroleum (BP). Its plans to have an installed capacity of over 1,000 Mw on completion at Dhule, to create the largest wind farm in the world at a single location.
"The situation in Dhule-Nandurbar is a result of a few individuals acting with ulterior motives, and trying to exploit the innocent local people, Suzlon and the turbine owners (who also own the land), for their own self interest. We are working with the local law enforcement and administration officials to resolve the situation," said a Suzlon spokesperson.
The agitators alleged that Suzlon acquired many hectares of land at about Rs 25,000 an acre in the region in the last three years from innocent tribals and farmers in about 40 villages and sold the land to its clients at a price many times higher.
The agitators demanded that those who sold land to Suzlon should be paid at least Rs 5 lakh per acre.
"The claims made against Suzlon are utterly false and baseless," the company spokeperson said. As a rule, land acquisition for any project promoted by the Suzlon group went through all legal and regulatory clearances and was carried out in a fair manner, he added.
Mote, who lost in the recent elections, however said his supporters "would evict Suzlon and its people from the region" if the company did not pay heed to his demands before June 7.
Suzlon said it was nothing short of blackmail to resort to threats of violence and illegal disruption of operations of the wind farm. "The projects being attacked had been in operation for two or three years, and the fact that issues were being raised now supported these suspicions," Suzlon said, in an e-mailed response.
Suzlon, the largest wind power producer in India, with over half of the total installed wind capacity in the country, has windfarms in Sanganeri in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mundargi in Karnataka, Jaisalmar in Rajasthan and in Gujarat, besides at Dhule, Sangli and Satara in Maharashtra.
