Indian Industry and Government chart out new plans to tap on wind energy

Different buyback rates and lack of clear policies and speedy clearance mechanism in the Indian states are the major barriers in tapping the wind energy potential in the country, said Jami Hossain, advisor (technical) to the Indian Wind Energy Association (INWEA). Hossain was in Ahmedabad to participate in a day-long business meeting to explore the possibilities of tapping on the renewable source of energy, wind energy. Hossain said while the potential for wind energy is estimated at 65,000 MW, the total electricity produced through wind energy today lies at at only 2,200 MW. Tamil Nadu accounts for half of this production with 1,100 MW of electricity, followed by Maharashtra with approx. 400 MW. Gujarat produces 193 MW of renewable energy via wind energy and Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh produce around 100 MW each.

The remaining energy is produced in a couple of other states, such as Karnataka and Kerala. “The government has assumed that one per cent of the land can be used for setting up wind energy stations. I believe that this rationale is not the right way of looking at the matter. For instance, in Tamil Nadu, more than one per cent of the land is being used for wind stations,” Hossain said. He went on to say that the potential for tapping wind energy depends on several factors like wind resources and the type of technology used. Furthermore, he said a series of meetings had recently been held with the industry represented by INWEA, financial institutions and the central government, in which a roadmap for the next five years had been chalked out, and that in association with the Government and the INWEA the two institutions have chalked out a generation capacity of 5,000 MW attributed to wind energy sources by 2007.