Suzlon sees 400-500 MW in new orders

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (SUZL.BO) is likely to book another 400 to 500 megawatts in orders by December, Chief Operating Officer Sumant Sinha said on Wednesday.

"I think the indication is that if you can book that many orders by December of this year ... that allows us to meet the guidance," Sinha told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit.

"I view this number as achievable," he said.

Sales of alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power generation have suffered over the past year as the credit crisis dried up funding for new projects.

That has prompted Suzlon, the No. 5 wind turbine maker globally, and its Danish rival Vestas Wind Systems (VWS.CO), to cut jobs from their U.S. manufacturing plants.

Andy Cukurs, head of Suzlon's U.S. operations, said the company had cut about 90 of the 300 workers it had employed at its Minnesota plant, which has the capacity to build 300 turbines per year.

"We're running at reduced rate, but we're still installing a turbine ever other day," he said. That was down from a turbine nearly every day a year ago.

Suzlon has only two wind turbines in the United States left to retrofit with new blades after replacing the blades on all of its nearly 400 turbines in the country, according to Cukurs.

The company undertook the retrofit program after cracking caused one blade to break off a turbine in Illinois last year.

Cukurs said he believed the decision to retrofit all the turbines had not hurt its reputation with customers.

"I think that customers recognize the blade issue is behind us and we've done what we had to stand behind the product," Cukurs said.

Meanwhile, financing is beginning to flow again for wind developers, he said, although it may take until 2011 for the industry to top the 8,500 megawatts of turbines that were installed in 2008.

Last week, the U.S. government announced it had awarded more than $500 million in grants to help finance wind projects under a $787 billion stimulus package designed to help revive the economy.

But the industry is still awaiting rules for loan guarantees that would reduce the cost of borrowing to fund new projects. The U.S. Congress is also considering measures that would require a portion of the country's power supply to come from renewable sources.

Excluding hydropower, less than 3 percent of U.S. power generation comes from renewables such as wind and solar, although more than two dozen states have enacted laws mandating utilities use more clean power sources.

(Reporting by Matt Daily; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)