Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today inaugurated Gamesa India’s ₹1,000-crore blade and nacelle manufacturing facility at Nellore, 180 km north of Chennai.

Gamesa, which is the country’s largest wind turbine company in terms of sales, has invested ₹500 crore so far to set up a plant that will make blades for its flagship product, G 114-2.0.

Up till now, Gamesa has been getting its blades either from its own plant in Halol, Gujarat, or buys from other companies, notably LM of Denmark which has plants in India.

The remaining ₹500 crore will come up in due course, for a factory to make nacelles — the ‘box’ on top of windmills, which houses the electricity-producing generators.

In addition, the plant will make inverters for solar power plants.

The plant has created 500 jobs, a number that will double in three years.

Speaking on the occasion, Naidu said that the plant would predominantly employ local people.

He said the State was willing to spend on skilling people, if necessary.

He spoke of the importance of creation of jobs in the country, setting it in the context of the US making work visas more difficult under the Trump administration.

Naidu stressed that Andhra Pradesh was an attractive investment destination given its advantages such as easy availability of land, abundant water and power and long coast with several deep draft ports. Further, the State, he said, was centrally located.

The State, he said, was fast turning into a renewable energy manufacturing hub, with the presence of wind turbine manufacturers Gamesa, ReGen Powertech and Suzlon.

The Chinese solar cells and modules manufacturer, Trina Solar, is putting up a plant in the State. Windar, an associate company of Gamesa, which makes steel towers for wind turbines, has just agreed to invest ₹130 crore in the Sri City industrial estate.

The Chairman and Managing Director of Gamesa India, Ramesh Kymal, said that the Nellore plant came up from ground breaking to inauguration in just six months.

He said that Gamesa has signed an MoU with the government of Andhra Pradesh to facilitate investments of ₹17,500 crore to create 2,500 MW of wind, solar and wind-solar hybrid power plants.