Q1. At the Singapore Energy Summit 2011, you talked about the importance of governments having a vision and mandate that clearly states what they hope to achieve in five to 10 years. Can you elaborate on this as well as some successful initiatives that Asia can learn from?

Girish Tanti: Every government, when starting out on the path to a sustainable future, needs to set a clear mandate on what they hope to achieve within a particular time period. People need a target to work towards. Once the mandate is settled on, innovations to make the target achievable can then be embarked upon. Government and industries alike are pushed towards developing suitable technology, human resources, policy and regulation.This path has proved to be successful across the world. Germany, in 2007, mandated working towards a target of 12 percent renewable electricity by 2010. Today, over 20 percent of the country's electricity is sourced from renewables. Having achieved its earlier targets, Germany has now revised these to 35 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. Among the developing economies, India has set a target to achieve 15 percent of energy from renewables by 2020. Renewables in the subcontinent are already at 10 percent of the capacity of the country's power sector--a clear indicator of the fact that a strong mandate is the first step towards a greener tomorrow.

Q2. Technological improvements are enabling some renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, to compete with conventional fuels. What are some of these, particularly for a wind-disadvantaged country like Singapore?

Girish Tanti: I do not agree with the statement that Singapore is wind-disadvantaged; there are no studies that indicate this. Before we arrive at this conclusion, we need to conduct proper scientific assessment. It is possible to harness wind in almost every country. In fact, wind technology has advanced to be able to generate energy from low-wind sites. Decades of R&D have assured that wind technology has improved rapidly, increasing yield at decreasing costs. Wind turbines now are 100 times more powerful than early versions. They employ sophisticated materials, electronics, and aerodynamics, leading to a decline in costs and making wind more competitive than any other renewable power generation options. Today, wind also directly competes with conventional sources. For example, in the US, it costs 2 cents to generate a unit of electricity from coal; 3 cents from gas; under 5 cents from nuclear; and 4 cents from wind. Further, the development of wind and other renewable sources in these countries has led to significant economic progress, an increase in employment, and most importantly, energy security.

Q3. In a recent interview at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, you stated that Suzlon is seeking a joint-venture partner to manufacture large turbines in China for the Chinese market. Why has Suzlon set its sights on the Chinese market?

Girish Tanti: China has immense wind potential which, along with a favourable policy, makes for a very attractive market. The government has released a grid-connection target to achieve 100GW in grid-connection capacity by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan, signalling the government's commitment to improve the imbalance between grid-connected capacity and erected numbers. Suzlon entered the Chinese market in 2006, and has been working since to develop the market. We are looking at opportunities with several partners to exploit the potential available.

Q4. What are some of the successful strategies that Suzlon has employed to become a leader in wind turbine manufacturing in Asia and globally?

Girish Tanti: At Suzlon we apply innovative practices at every step of our value chain to make the company, the market, and our footprint sustainable. We apply frugal or disruptive innovation to not just R&D, but also market development, project services, installation, operations and maintenance. There is no one single formula for success. Every market has different needs, and we need to innovate to meet those. Suzlon expanded to its second market, the US, in 2004. Today, we are in over 30 countries across six continents. For each of these regions we've set different priorities and leveraged on local resources to create markets for wind energy and opportunities for communities where previously none existed.

Q5. Do you have any plans to expand into Southeast Asia? What are some of the challenges to adopting wind power as a source of renewable energy in this region?

Girish Tanti: Every region has its own set of challenges, but perhaps the most difficult is operating in countries where a clear vision and mandate for renewable energy is still not in place.

It is possible to adopt wind power in almost any country, as the world is blessed with ample wind resource and technologies have matured. We have witnessed that countries normally go through a sustainable energy maturity curve: Firstly, there comes a realisation that adopting all forms of renewable energy is vital for the sustainable future of the country. This is then followed by setting a vision/mandate for adoption of renewables, like setting 2020 targets. These targets are backed by developing conducive policies to permit penetration of renewables into the main energy supply and to help drive private-sector investment and financing for the sector. Finally, there is a need to develop appropriate implementation and review processes to monitor the progress of the targets, in order to provide a feedback loop for appropriate fine-tuning of policies and regulations. This has successfully worked for many countries with the highest adoption and share of renewables and wind power, specifically Germany, Spain, the US, China, India, the UK and Denmark, to name a few big players.

We do expect Southeast Asian countries shall soon begin to set goals supported by appropriate policy frameworks for the adoption of renewables into their energy mix, which would set the ball rolling for the penetration of renewables into the main power supply.