FOWIND Publishes Offshore Wind Feasibility Studies for Gujarat and Tamil Nadu

The FOWIND consortium launched its latest reports today, the "Feasibility Study for Offshore Wind Farm Development in Gujarat And Tamil Nadu".  The two reports are the final step towards laying out the roadmap for the offshore wind sector in India by the GWEC led FOWIND (Facilitating Offshore Wind In India) consortium. 

These reports are the key milestone from FOWIND's final year of work and follows up FOWIND's pre-feasibility studies for Gujarat and Tamil Nadu in 2015. The aim of this report is to provide a concept design for a demonstration project of 150 to 504 MW in Gujarat's most promising offshore wind development area, "Zone A" identified in the pre-feasibility study. This provides companies and government institutions with a starting point for future detailed offshore Front End Engineering Design (FEED) studies and assists with the identification of key project risks in Gujarat. A parallel study has been conducted for the state of Tamil Nadu.

Beginning with selecting the optimum location for the project within the already identified Zone A, the report then focuses on defining baseline metocean and geotechnical parameters. This process leads to optimising the design and outline project costing using DNV GL's LCOE (levelised cost of energy) tool, 'Turbine.Architect'. Two different project sizes (approx. 150 and 500 MW) are analysed with 4, 6 and 10 MW turbines, coming to a range of conclusions as to project cost and cost of energy in a range of configurations. The two studies present an informed outlook for the amount of new offshore wind capacity that could be reliably incorporated into the two state grids, efficiently and in a planned manner. The work done under these reports is influenced by current policies, market and technology trends along with our experience with the FOWIND project since 2014.

India has the world's 4th largest onshore wind market with a total installed capacity of close to 33 GW. However, India has an acute need for large-scale, clean and indigenous energy generation to fuel its rapidly growing economy. Offshore wind power could play a very important role in India due to the large wind resources available near centers of high-energy demand. Globally, offshore wind power is becoming increasingly cost-effective with installations over 18.8 GW.

As a responsible global actor, India made strong commitments under the UN Paris Climate Agreement and announced its ambitious renewable energy goals in 2015, targeting 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. This target includes 60 GW from wind energy. Recently, India has expressed its strong interest in opening up the offshore wind segment. 

Marking the occasion of the publication of these reports, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India stated, "It is the beginning of India's journey from Onshore to Offshore - A dream comes true".

"The European Union's support to the off-shore wind sector in India is based on the strong expertise developed in Europe since the early 1990's. We are keen to continue our cooperation with India in its vision of making offshore wind energy a reality in the near future", said Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador of the European Union to India.

"Another step forward for offshore wind in India", said Steve Sawyer, GWEC Secretary General. "With careful planning and execution India can build a strong domestic industry and get to competitive prices in the offshore quickly much quicker than the 25 years it took in Europe." 

"Working on the series of FOWIND reports was a highly rewarding experience - not always easy - but encouraging to see how all the pieces of the puzzle came together. I am optimistic that the roadmap developed under the FOWIND project provides a solid foundation for the development of offshore wind in India significantly decreasing the uncertainty levels for potential developers", said Mathias Steck, Executive Vice President and Regional Manager - Digital Consulting and Smart Cities, Asia at DNV GL - Digital Solutions.

FOWIND has provided a roadmap for initiating a sustainable and commercially viable offshore wind industry, focusing on two coastal states out of a total of eight coastal states and the Union Territory of Goa. Further technical investigations could deliver a more detailed pan-India outlook for offshore wind developments over the longer term.

• The Gujarat Report can be downloaded here 
• The Tamil Nadu Report can be downloaded here