India soaring high on wind energy

The wind energy market is promised to have a powerful growth in the next decade, and India is on its way to lead the race
 Asia Pacific is the major market in the wind energy sector, with China and India spearheading growth in the region. While China led the wind energy market, India isn’t far behind. Although the wind energy was overshadowed by solar projects, the sector has received a boost as the government has restored key tax incentives. India has emerged as one of the 5th largest wind power producer in the world — behind China, US, Germany and Spain.
Wind energy and IndiaThe onshore wind energy market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 29.6 per cent during 2014 to 2020, and India is going to be an important part of it. According to Tata Power, “India has a huge wind generation potential and that is far from being exhausted.”Indian Wind Energy Association (InWEA) reports that the onshore potential for utilisation of wind energy for electricity generation is of the order of 1,02,788 MW. With the current figures of 21,262.23 MW, India has just used 21 per cent of its wind generation potential.
Even Bihag Mehta, Manager – Renewable Energy (Advisory), SgurrEnergy India Pvt. Ltd. thins the same. He explains that India has a huge potential for the development for the wind farms, unfortunately Indian climate is not blessed with high windy zones.
However, with the new WTG being developed, we would be in a better position to harness the low wind regime zones.
ChallengesDespite being technologically mature, the wind energy sector is facing numerous challenges. “The high wind zones have almost been exhausted,” shares Tata Power. “The new installations have to be set up on low and medium windy sites that provide low generation. The cost of land adds to the woes and remote locations have accessibility issues.
Other major challenges in the sector include insufficient grid infrastructure and grid connectivity, environmental, forest clearance, unattractive incentive policies from the government and absence of an integrated policy framework.”
According to Mr Mehta, “With the current wind farm sites are mostly of complex terrain, the industry, developers and financial institutions need a proper technical guidance and knowledge to make the right choice of the project development. On a broader way, they need an expert technical solution provider for the complete project lifecycle (right from the carrying out wind measurements till commissioning of the WTGs). This would definitely mitigate the key risks associated with their projects.”
According to Tata Power, “The introduction and discontinuation of various fiscal incentives create confusion among the investors. For example, the generation-based incentive (GBI) was announced in 2011 and then discontinued in 2012. In 2013 Annual Budget, it was introduced again. Then accelerated depreciation, originally introduced in 2002, was discontinued in 2012 and then reinforced in 2014. The Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO) needs to be enforced that will give further boost to the sector.”
Government’s approachThe wind energy sector got much needed boost after the new government restored key tax incentives like GBI and accelerated depreciation (AD) in the recent budget.

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