By Noor Mohammed, IANS
New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) Wind power is emerging as a key factor in India’s quest for energy as fossil fuel-based power generation has failed to keep pace with the growing electricity requirement of a surging economy.
Wind power accounts for 7,230 MW of the country’s 10,175 MW of renewable electricity generation capacity. The share of wind power in the country’s total generation capacity stands at 7.5 percent.
K.P. Shivkumaran, advisor to the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) on wind energy, expects that another 10,500 MW capacity will be added in wind generation during the 2007-2012 five year plan period. Shivkumaran told IANS he was satisfied with the pace of capacity addition in wind power.
Wind power generation potential in the country is estimated at 45,000 MW, the fourth largest in the world after Germany, the US and Britain.
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are among states with significant wind power generation potential.
In order to promote capacity addition in wind energy, the government has introduced various fiscal incentives, including 80 percent accelerated depreciation, tax holidays for power generation projects, soft loans, customs and excise duty exemption as well as liberalised foreign investment clearance procedures.
However, A.A. Khatani, chief manager (commercial) of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), says that most of the wind power projects are being developed as captive plants and that there is not much interest for setting up wind power plants on the lines of independent power producer (IPP) projects as yet. IREDA is the government’s nodal agency for renewable energy projects.
“Capacity utilisation of wind power generating stations is relatively low due to variable nature of wind intensity. And these plants are also constrained in supplying power to grids on a firm schedule. These are the main reasons why IPP model has not worked for wind power projects,” Khatani said.
Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA) has identified a wind power generation potential of 65,000 MW in the country. IWTMA chairman D.V. Giri says wind power generation capacity in the country is being added at the rate of 1,500 MW a year. And he believes that if the government provides further incentives like production tax credit and carbon credit facilities, wind power capacity can be added at the rate of 3,000-4,000 MW a year.
Giri maintains that wind power, which is a clean and environment-friendly energy sources, is at a disadvantage vis-à-vis fossil fuels due to subsidies given to coal and gas supplies by the government. He said that the cost of electricity generation from wind power currently works out to Rs.2.5 per unit. This compares well with cost of power generation from fossil fuels if they are bought at market-determined prices.
“In the long term, wind power along with other renewable energy sources has the potential to meet 20 percent of the country’s electricity requirement if the government makes changes in the existing policy regime to impose an environment protection cess on fossil fuel-generated power in order to level the playing field for wind power,” Giri said.
The IWTMA chairman also believes that suggested policy changes like allowing third party sales without any restriction, mandatory purchase of renewable energy by state utilities up to 20 percent of their requirement and adopting relaxed tariff determination norms by electricity regulatory bodies would go a long way towards encouraging capacity addition in wind power generation.