Wind Power Program in India

Introduction

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in India is conducting a comprehensive Wind Power Program with nationwide coverage. The Ministry is essentially acting as a catalyst in the process of commercialization of India's 'grid-interactive wind power'.

It may be noted that mainly two kinds of wind turbines find usage in grid-interactive power. They are the 'pitch regulated' and 'stall regulated' varieties respectively. These two types of technologies have their own pros and cons.

Wind turbines, which are pitch regulated possess adjustable rotor blades. These blades are capable of changing the attachment angle depending upon the wind speed. The wind turbines, which are stall regulated possess fixed rotor blades.

Wind turbines usually come with a variety of towers like concrete tubular, lattice and steel tubular towers.

It has been estimated that wind power generation has a potential of around 45,000 MW in India. The estimation refers to power generation intended for grid interaction. This estimation was based on sites, which possessed a wind power density of above 250/W sq. m. The hub-height was 50 m.

Availability of land for establishment of wind farms@12 ha/MW was found to be three percent in the potential areas.

Information on Wind Electric Generator manufacture

In India at present there are a dozen manufacturers who are into the production of Wind Electric Generators.

Production is usually carried out in any one of the three production models as mentioned below.

1. It is a joint venture under licensed production
2. Production is carried out by Indian companies using indigenous technology
3. Producing units are foreign company subsidiaries with proper production license


The present yearly production capacity of indigenous wind turbines is around 2500 MW in India. For machines possessing an unit size of up to 500 kW the import content may be as low as 30%. For higher capacity machines the import content can be a tad bit higher.

C-WET and Wind Power Program in India

C-WET is the nodal co-ordinating agency for Government of India's 'Wind Resource Assessment Program'. The full form of C-WET is 'Centre for Wind Energy Technology'.

C-WET is an autonomous body under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's administrative control. The organization is mainly involved in the following activities.

» Resource assessment
» Certification
» Testing


Till date 25 Indian States and Union Territories have come under the purview of the 'Wind Resource Assessment Program' program.

A total of 1050 wind mapping stations and wind monitoring stations have been set up under this. program

It may be noted that the Central government and the State governments share the cost of establishment of wind monitoring stations on a 80:20 ratio. This ratio changes to 90:10 for India's hilly states and the entire North Eastern Region.

The program has as per latest available data identified 216 potential sites for wind power generation.