India Plans to Reassess Wind Energy Resource to Match Latest Wind Energy Tech

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The Centre for Wind Energy Technology (CWET), located in the capital of India’s leading wind-energy-producing state, is all set to launch a new project to assess the wind energy potential in the country. The new project would enable new and existing project developers to get a real sense of the investment opportunities available in India’s most favored renewable energy sector.

Officials at CWET plan to set up wind-speed assessment sensors at 75 locations at a height of 100 meters and at four other locations at a height of 120 meters. The development is significant because the organization has actual validated wind energy potential measurements taken at only 45 meters. The data is so old that probably none of the wind energy solution providers in India are selling any wind turbine with a hub height of 45 meters.

Most of the wind turbines available in India have hub heights ranging between 65 and 100 meters. Interestingly, according to the measurements at 45 meters high, the southern state of Tamil Nadu has a wind power generation capacity of 5,374 MW while the wind generation capacity installed in the state was 6,286 MW in August 2011. At 45 meters, India’s total wind power generation potential has been assessed at 49,130 MW, while at height of 80 meters the potential has been estimated at 102,788 MW.

The decision by CWET to undertake a study which matches the current technology would boost the confidence of investors and project developers who were disappointed by the government’s move to roll back a tax incentive policy for wind projects from April 2012.

Wind energy is the largest renewable energy sector in India with a share of 70 percent of the total renewable capacity installed. The sector continues to attract huge investment from domestic as well as international investors. Last year, the Global Wind Energy Council stated that, even in the absence of any new policies, the wind energy capacity is likely to double to about 24 GW by 2020 and further increase to more than 30.5 GW by 2030. If the current policies are fully implemented, the installed capacity is likely to grow by almost four times to over 46 GW by 2020 and then more than double to over 108 GW within the next ten years.

Image via k c m (Flickr)/CC

The views presented in the above article are author’s personal views only.


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Mridul Chadha

Mridul currently works as Head-News & Data at Climate Connect Limited, a market research and analytics firm in the renewable energy and carbon markets domain. He earned his Master’s in Technology degree from The Energy & Resources Institute in Renewable Energy Engineering and Management. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering. Mridul has a keen interest in renewable energy sector in India and emerging carbon markets like China and Australia.

Mridul Chadha has 425 posts and counting. See all posts by Mridul Chadha