By Kari Williamson

The S8X wind turbine is designed specifically for the Indian market where the majority of potential lies in medium-to-low wind sites, Suzlon says.

The rotors have diameters of 86.5 m and 89 m, and the tower measures 90 m. This could improve energy yields by 15-20% over the current S82 1.5 MW. The S8X is also designed for high temperatures.

John O’Halloran, President, Technology, at Suzlon Energy, says: “This marks an extremely important step forward in our product strategy. The S8X builds on our extensive operating experience with our highly successful S82 - 1.5 MW fleet in some of the most challenging environments in the world. The development programme drew extensively on feedback from our key customer groups – primarily PSUs and IPPs in India – to create a product that meets their current and future needs, and provides consistently improving returns on investment.”

Tulsi Tanti, Chairman, Suzlon Group, adds: “As the Indian wind market continues to grow at over 40% per year, we believe the S8X will be a game changer in the high-growth 1.5 MW segment – delivering higher reliability, uptime, energy production and ultimately greatly improved returns on investment to customers over its lifecycle.”