Globally, India has the fourth-highest installed capacity to generate wind energy. The technical 'know-how' is still not there to exercise it's maximum potential. Although, the progress can be accelerated by changing systems and policies.
The country's total installed capacity was 41.67 GW as on September 30, 2022. The Indian government set a target for 175 GW of renewable energy capacity. The goal included achieving 60 GW of onshore and 5 GW of offshore capacity for wind energy.
Even though India's wind sector is performing well, the pace of the wind energy sector has somewhat declined. The procurement model has been updated to make it centralised in structure. The policy focused on supporting the development of renewable power generation.
According to estimates by the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) and the World Bank Group - India has the potential for more than 602 GW of onshore wind energy at 120-meter hub height and 100 GW of fixed and floating offshore.
The state of Gujarat has the highest wind energy potential followed by Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
Challenges in meeting targets:
- It may fail to achieve the targets due to pricing, payment risk mitigation, transmission capacity, and land use challenges.
- Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have the highest plant load factor ( PLF ). Hence, most of the projects are being planned in these states.
- Current bidding is based on tariffs derived from the PLF itself.
- The creation of infrastructure is again an expensive affair. Generally, investor plan projects differently owing to varied conditions.
Steps have been taken to promote the installation of wind capacity in the country:
- Technical support and assistance have been attempted to expand over.
- The inter-state transmission charges and losses have been waived off for wind and solar projects.
- Multiple policies have been inaugrated to raise the scale.
- Identification and inventory of resource planning.
India is a country with a diversity of resources and it is on its way to improving it's status in the course of renewable energy generation projects. Hopefully, the magnitude and acceleration of projects will help to meet the desired capacity.
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