India All Set For Its First Offshore Wind Energy Project

Offshore Wind energy in India

The state of Gujarat will host India’s first offshore wind energy project, as the country braces to welcome expression of interest for the 1ooo MW project. India has plans to set up 5 GW of offshore wind energy projects by 2022.

India’s wind energy market is the 4th largest in the world. The country has immense potential given its 7600 km long coastline and aims at reducing tariffs by taking advantage of this scale. The Gujarat and Tamil Nadu coastlines have the potential to generate around 106,000 MW and 60,000 MW, respectively, of offshore wind energy. India is identifying many such potential locations for the installation of such wind power plants, as per its 2015 “National Offshore Wind Energy Policy“. Offshore wind power projects are gaining traction in the west, with both cost and technologies becoming competitive.

The Indian offshore wind market has failed to develop owing to the high upfront costs and transmission issues, the dilemma of manufacturing or procuring equipment with higher capacities etc. According to an industry player, tariffs for offshore wind in India would still be around INR 7 per unit, while the onshore wind power tariffs have fallen to around INR 2.43 per unit. However, offshore wind plants support larger wind turbines and generate higher power. Given their location on a seabed, they face minimum obstruction to wind flow and are hence more efficient.

Read more: Advantages of Offshore Wind Power

Solar energy has received all the fanfare in India with the government targeting to set up 100 GW of solar installations by 2022. However, the country also plans to install 60 GW of wind power by 2022. Vestas, Siemens, Gamesa and Suzlon Energy are the major offshore wind turbine companies globally. Read more about List of Offshore Wind Turbine Companies and Offshore Wind Farm Developers here.

Suzlon Energy is ranked among the top five manufacturers of wind turbines worldwide.  However, Suzlon retrenched from global wind turbine markets with the sale of Senvion. While upstarts like Inox Wind taking away market share in its home turf, Vestas and Gamesa have recovered extremely well from the global wind turbine industry downturn with record profits and margins. Recently, Suzlon set up its own offshore station to study Gujarat’s wind potential.

The country has taken a baby step towards the development of offshore wind market in India by calling for EoIs. The government also needs to formalize incentives and policies to promote the offshore wind energy market in India, in order to make it a success.