Comments on: New Study: India Wind Energy Potential 20-30 Times Greater than Official Estimates

By: Mridul Chadha

Mridul Chadha — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:57:00 +0000

Ok, so there’s no activity in the large-scale battery storage sector in India, that I’m aware of. In order to integrate the large renewable energy capacities coming up, the government recently announced stricter power generation forecasting and grid injection regulations. These regulations penalize generators if they fail to forecast the power generation with a certain level of confidence (which is fairly high).

Also, the government will invest $80 million in 8 smart grid pilot projects. They are collaborating with foreign governments in this regard.

I agree that US needs to considerably improve on energy efficiency, especially on the demand side.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 02:32:00 +0000

My question was about India.

Because India needs to create a lot of new capacity it’s in the position to look ahead and do what it “best”. I suppose I’m interested in knowing whether some people in India are looking carefully at how they might design their grid that would give it the largest leap forward possible.

There’s no reason to repeat the evolutionary steps other countries have taken. Just as with wide adoption of cell phones, a country building massive new infrastructure can jump ahead to what will gradually appear in more developed countries.

Here, in the US, we need little to no new generation. Efficient use may, in fact, leave us with more capacity than we need. (Except that the extra is likely to be taken up by EVs.)

That means, for the most part, we have to find justification for closing still-working plants as we bring clean generation on board.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:06:00 +0000

yeah, we wrote on that in Dec: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/12/16/solar-power-in-india-is-now-cheaper-than-diesel/

solar seems to be where the most potential lies for India,.. but this new wind study is pretty exciting (at least for showing us what’s possible better than that 5-year-old study you mentioned) — they are such a good match.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:04:00 +0000

Thanks for the note.

What’s up with you these days? Finished engineering school? Shoot me an email sometime.

By: Mridul Chadha

Mridul Chadha — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:16:00 +0000

My knowledge of renewable energy is restricted largely to India only. To my knowledge there are no large-scale renewable energy projects using battery storage in India. However, I did come across a news story few weeks back which claimed that solar power in India is now cheaper than electricity for diesel generators.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:10:00 +0000

If you know, is the price of wind-electricity stored in utility scale batteries or pump-up hydro approaching the cost of fuel for diesel generators?

By: Mridul Chadha

Mridul Chadha — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:27:00 +0000

The Indian government estimates were based on 50 year old studies at hub height of 50 meters. I doubt any company makes wind turbines with hub height of 50 meters these days. Tamil Nadu, the state with the highest wind power installed capacity in India, has already surpassed the old estimated potential. The Indian government too has now raised the wind energy potential after making measurements at 80 meters. Another crucial development last year was that the government allowed developers to set up projects at sites with relatively lower wind potential due to the vastly improved technology. This has opened up vast areas for expansion of the most trusted renewable energy resource in India.