Suzlon Energy News: Wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon Energy has now recovered from debt and business fluctuations. Its order book has reached about 5 GW and costs have also come down and in an interview with Moneycontrol, the company's management said that the company has prepared a big expansion plan. The company is going to enter the market of high-capacity wind turbines while maintaining its dominance in the market and it is also going to enter more segments of renewable energy. The company repaid a debt of about Rs 1500 crore in the financial year 2023-24 and its net worth has become positive for the first time in ten years. Institutional investors have also become positive about it and global asset management company BlackRock has recently bought a stake in it.

Rights issues changed the story of Suzlon Energy

Suzlon was troubled by rising debt and losses. In 2019, it focused on reducing costs and reducing debt. Due to cost reduction efforts, the company was able to reduce its break-even point from 1400 MW in FY 2017 to 600 MW in FY 2020. Apart from this, to strengthen its health, it was brought a rights issue in October 2022, when it got a setback with the death of the company's founder and chairman Tulsi Tanti on the late evening of 1 October 2022. However, the rights issue was successful and now a lot has changed for the company in two years.

According to Suzlon Group CEO JP Chalsani, two things - cost reduction and debt-free, strengthened the company's way forward. According to the company's co-founder and vice chairman Girish Tanti, the company's cash flow is sufficient for it to grow further and now there is no need to raise funds in any way. In March 2024, Crisil Ratings upgraded its rating to 'A-' with a positive outlook. The rating upgrade is due to better-than-expected improvement in margins, healthy cash flow from the O&M business, and a surge in order books.

Now what is the next plan for Suzlon Energy?

The CEO and Vice Chairman of the company revealed that the company now wants to expand beyond wind turbines into the renewable energy segment. Its core business is wind turbines and in this, the company is going to enter the market of wind turbines with higher capacity while maintaining its one-third market share. Suzlon's latest 3.15 MW model has been prepared and many orders have also been received for it. Now the company is preparing for the next product so that the needs of future demand can be met. India plans to install 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 20230, out of which 140 GW will be of wind energy. According to Jaypee, according to this target of 2030, India will increase from 5-6 GW of annual installation to 10-12 GW.

Apart from wind turbines, the company is also planning to expand into solar and storage solutions. In this regard, Suzlon Group announced in August 2024 that it has signed a deal with Sanjay Ghodawat Group for a 76 percent stake in Renom Energy Services Private Limited. Renom has 1782 MW wind assets, 148 MW solar assets , and 572 MW plants under maintenance.

According to Girish, now customers do not want only wind energy. They are also looking at solar and energy storage solutions. In such a situation, the company decided to include all these in its business because customers would prefer to go to the one that can provide all types of services in one place. However, he said that the company will not make solar equipment and battery storage and for this, it will adopt a hybrid model.