India Wind Industry needs more Policies & Incentives

India has a big and strong wind power industry with the country having the 4^th largest installed capacity of wind turbines at 27 GW. What also sets the industry apart from solar energy is that India has a big domestic industry which manufactures most of the components being used to make the wind turbines that generate the wind power. Suzlon and Inox lead the industry in terms of wind industry, being the 2^nd and 3^rd largest WTG suppliers. Besides these, there are a number of other small wind players such as Regen Powertech and Shriram Leitwind which are promoted by domestic large industrial companies. In comparison, India does only assembly work in solar industry with India importing huge quantities of solar panels that puts a lot of strain on the foreign exchange of the country.

The wind industry has not gotten the love received by the solar industry which has received huge number of policy incentives and huge amount of subsidies. The Indian wind industry wants more policy clarity and focus so that money can be invested into the industry for the long term. The possibility of generation based incentives and accelerated depreciation being removed by the government is also weighing on developer’s minds. Some of the policies pushed by the government such as repowering and solar-wind hybrid have not really taken off, with the government not doing enough to push these polices in implmenetation.

India has a lot of wind potential still left with NIWE recently revising the potential to more than 300 GW from the current potential of just 85 GW. Recent advancements in wind turbine technology such as higher heights of wind turbines has allowed even less windy sites to become potential wind generating sites. Out of the 300 GW of wind potential, 150 GW or more lies in wastelands which means that the wind industry has tremendous scope to grow and the availability of wind resources will not be a constraint for the Indian industry in the future.