EAT THE CAKE AND HAVE IT TOO

The Indian wind energy sector has an installed capacity of 17,365.03 MW (as on March 31, 2012). In terms of wind power installed capacity, India is ranked 5th in the World. Today India is a major player in the global wind energy market.

The potential is far from exhausted. Indian Wind Energy Association has estimated that with the current level of technology, the ‘on-shore’ potential for utilization of wind energy for electricity generation is of the order of 102 GW. The unexploited resource availability has the potential to sustain the growth of wind energy sector in India in the years to come.

Wind Energy Programme in India The Wind power programme in India was initiated towards the end of the Sixth Plan, in 1983-84. A market-oriented strategy was adopted from inception, which has led to the successful commercial development of the technology. The broad based National programme includes wind resource assessment activities; research and development support; implementation of demonstration projects to create awareness and opening up of new sites; involvement of utilities and industry; development of infrastructure capability and capacity for manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance of wind electric generators; and policy support. The programme aims at catalyzing commercialisation of wind power generation in the country. The Wind Resources Assessment Programme is being implemented through the State Nodal Agencies, Field Research Unit of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM-FRU) and Center for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET). Wind in India are influenced by the strong south-west summer monsoon, which starts in May-June, when cool, humid air moves towards the land and the weaker north-east winter monsoon, which starts in October, when cool, dry sir moves towards the ocean. During the period march to August, the winds are uniformly strong over the whole Indian Peninsula, except the eastern peninsular coast. Wind speeds during the period November to march are relatively weak, though higher winds are available during a part of the period on the Tamil Nadu coastline. A notable feature of the Indian programme has been the interest among private investors/developers in setting up of commercial wind power projects. The wind power generation capacity in India is 49,130 MW as per the official estimates in the Indian Wind Atlas (2010) by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET). The potential is calculated with respect to 2 per cent land availability at windy locations and pertains to a 50 meter hub height level of the wind turbines. Presently large wind turbines with higher hub height in the range of 80-100 meter with large rotor diameters up to 120 m are available in the Indian market. Conceding technological advancement and higher wind speeds at higher hub heights, the potential of 49,130 MW at 50 meter level if extrapolated at 80 meter standard hub height, the projected wind potential using the same land availability will be in the order of 1,02,788 MW (not officially declared owing to lack of validation). As on  March 31, 2012 a total of about17365.03 MW of commercial projects have been established until. The break-up of projects implemented in prominent wind potential states (as on March 31, 2012) is as given below State-wise Wind Power Installed Capacity In India  State Total Capacity (MW) till 31.03.2012 Andhra Pradesh 245.50 Gujarat 2,966.30 Karnataka 1,933.50 Kerala 35.1 Madhya Pradesh 376.40 Maharashtra 2,733.30 Orissa - Rajasthan 2,070.70 Tamil Nadu 6,987.60 Others 3.2 Total (All India) 17,351.50    Estimation of installed Wind Power Potential at 50 meter and 80 Meter hub-height. States / UTs Estimated potential (MW) @ 50 m ($) @ 80 m (* #$) Andaman & Nicobar 2 365 Andhra Pradesh 5394 14497 Arunachal Pradesh* 201 236 Assam* 53 112 Bihar - 144 Chhattisgarh* 23 314 Dieu Damn - 4 Gujarat 10609 35071 Haryana - 93 Himachal Pradesh * 20 64 Jharkhand - 91 Jammu & Kashmir * 5311 5685 Karnataka 8591 13593 Kerala 790 837 Lakshadweep 16 16 Madhya Pradesh 920 2931 Maharashtra 5439 5961 Manipur* 7 56 Meghalaya * 44 82 Nagaland * 3 16 Orissa 910 1384 Pondicherry - 120 Rajasthan 5005 5050 Sikkim * 98 98 Tamil Nadu 5374 14152 Uttarakhand * 161 534 Uttar Pradesh * 137 1260 West Bengal* 22 22 Total 49,130 1,02,788 *    Wind potential has yet to be validated with actual measurements. #   Estimation is based on meso scale modelling (Indian Wind Atlas). $   As actual land assessment is not done on a conservative consideration 2 % land availability for all states except Himalayan & North eastern states, Andaman Nicobar Islands and Poor windy states has been assumed. In other area 0.5% land availability has been assumed.      Source: C-WET State-Wise Cumulative Wind Generation Data in (BU) (As on 31.01.2011) S. No. Name of the State Upto 2005 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Up to Jan. 2011 Cumu-lative                 1 Andhra Pradesh 0.721 0.079 0.111 0.101 0.333 .106 .067 1.518 2 Gujarat 1.332 0.286 0.455 0.851 2.104 2.988 2.309 10.325 3 Karnataka 1.409 0.935 1.397 1.840 1.723 2.895 2.362 12.561 4 Kerala 0.047 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 .065 .059 0.171 5 Madhya Pradesh 0.300 0.030 0.070 0.069 0.003 .082 .039 0.593 6 Maharashtra 2.650 0.790 1.714 1.804 2.207 2.778 2.368 14.311 7 Rajasthan 0.494 0.427 0.532 0.682 0.758 1.127 1.049 5.069 8 Tamil Nadu 11.970 3.444 5.268 6.066 6.206 8.146 8.017 49.117   Total 18.925 5.991 9.547 11.413 13.334 18.187 16.270 93.665 Source: INDIAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION