- The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has declared medium and long term target for off-shore wind power capacity additions, which are 5 GW by 2022 and 30 GW by 2030.
- As per the ministry, while this may look moderate in comparison to India’s on-shore wind target of 60 GW and its achievement of 34 GW and solar target of 100 GW by 2022, this would still be challenging considering the difficulties in installing large wind power turbines in open seas.
- It may be mentioned that offshore wind turbines are of much larger dimensions and capacities than onshore turbines.
- Offshore wind power would add a new element to the already existing basket of renewable energy for the country.
- The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy had notified National Off-Shore Wind Policy in October 2015 to realize the offshore wind power potential in the country.
- Preliminary studies have indicated good wind potential for off-shore wind power both in southern tip of Indian peninsula and west coast.
- Two regions where preliminary studies are conducted are off coast of Gujarat and that of Tamil Nadu. For precise wind quality measurements one LiDAR has been installed near Gujarat coast which is generating data about quality of off-shore wind since November, 2017.
- Encouraged by quality of off-shore wind, a private sector player has also installed LiDAR in Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat for offshore wind resource measurements.
- Plans are afoot to install more of such equipment in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Surveys to understand the oceanographic and sea bed condition within identified zones off the coast of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have been planned. Globally there has been installation of about 17 to 18 GW of off-shore wind power led by countries such as UK, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands & China.
- Recent years have witnessed fall in off-shore wind tariff in some of these markets.
Renewable energy target by 2022
- The Government of India has set a target of 175 GW renewable power installed capacity by the end of 2022.
- The target includes 60 GW from wind power, 100 GW from solar power, 10 GW from biomass power and 5 GW from small hydro power.
- A target of 14550 MW grid renewable power (wind 4000 MW, solar 10000 MW, small hydro power 200 MW, bio-power 340 MW and waste to power 10 MW), has been set for 2017-18. Besides, under off-grid renewable system, targets of 15 MW eq. waste to energy, 60 MW eq. biomass non-bagasse cogeneration, 7.50 MW eq. biomass gasifiers, 0.5 MW eq. small wind/hybrid systems, 100 MW eq. solar photovoltaic systems, 150/25 Nos. eq. micro hydel and 110,000 nos. family size biogas plants have been set for 2017-18.
