Increased warming in the Indian Ocean and the resultant weakening of the Indian summer monsoon may come in the way of India’s goal of leading the world’s wind power generation.

Summer winds

• Summer winds in India are driven by the temperature contrast between the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean, and the warming in the Indian Ocean reduced this contrast. Also, warming of the Equatorial Indian Ocean resulted in a decline in the wind speed.
• The Indian government has set a target of 60 GW of cumulative wind power capacity by 2022. The researchers say that this goal can be beneficial only if planners in India take these historical reconstructions into account while setting up wind power installations in the future.

Wind Energy in India

• The Union Government has set an ambitious target of achieving 175 Giga Watt (GW) power capacity from clean renewable energy resources by 2022.
• Out of this, 60 GW target is set for wind power. The present installed wind power capacity in the country is nearly 26.7 GW accounting for nearly9% of total installed capacity.
• Globally, India is at 4th position in term of installed wind power capacity after China, USA and Germany.
• The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) under the MNRE assesses the wind power potential in the country at 100 meter above ground level.
• It has estimated it over 302 GW and there are 8 windy states namely Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana
• India has achieved the largest-ever wind power capacity addition of 3,423 MW in 2015-16, exceeding the target by 44%.

Targets:

• Medium term target for Offshore wind power: 5 GW by 2022 Long term target for Offshore wind power: 30 GW by 2030 Target for Onshore wind power: 60 GW
• The offshore wind power will add new element to already existing basket of renewable energy of the country.

Analysis:

• The target set for offshore wind power is moderate in comparison to on-shore wind target of 60 GW and its achievement of 34 GW and solar target of 100 GW by 2022.
• This is mainly because of challenges considering difficulties in installing large wind power turbines in open seas.
• Moreover, offshore wind turbines are of much larger dimensions and capacities than onshore turbines. Globally the installation capacity of off-shore wind power is about 17 to 18 GW. It led by countries such as UK, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands & China. Recent years have witnessed fall in off-shore wind tariff in some of these markets.

Steps for Offshore Power:

• MNRE had notified National Offshore Wind Energy Policy in October 2015 for this sector. Under it, Chennai based National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) was designated nodal agency to carry out necessary studies and surveys before final bidding of offshore wind project sites. It also serves as single window for facilitating necessary clearances required for development of offshore wind projects.
• NIWE had identified southern tip of Indian peninsula and west coast with good potential for off-shore wind power. Moreover, preliminary studies were conducted are off coast of Gujarat and that of Tamil Nadu for development of offshore wind power projects.
• It had had installed India’s first offshore LiDAR in Gulf of Khambhat for measurement of wind resource and is collecting wind speed data from November 2017.