Wind Energy

Wind energy is a popular, clean, renewable energy source with a substantially lower carbon footprint. India’s wind power-producing capacity has expanded dramatically in recent years. The overall installed wind power capacity was 40 GW as of 30 November 2021, making it the world’s fourth-highest installed wind power capacity.

What is Wind Energy?

This takes advantage of wind motion to generate electricity.
Wind motion is brought about by the heat from the sun, and rotation of the earth, mainly via the Coriolis Effect.
Wind is a form of solar energy caused by a combination of three concurrent events:
The sun unevenly heating the atmosphere
Irregularities of the earth’s surface
The rotation of the earth.

Working of Wind Turbine

Wind turbines work on a simple principle: instead of using electricity to make wind—like a fan—wind turbines use wind to make electricity.
Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity.

What are Wind Farm/Park?

Meaning & Types

A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an extensive area.

Types of Wind Farm/Parks

Onshore – Wind turbines harness the energy of moving air to generate electricity. Onshore wind refers to turbines located on land
Offshore – offshore turbines are located out at sea or in freshwater.

What are the Challenges?

The market has concentrated wind projects around a few substations of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, which were home to the strongest resource potential and lowest cost of land.
This created bottlenecks and slowed down project activity and made it costlier than solar power.
India’s track record has indicated that the wind installation market is a lumpy market.
- Considerable momentum has been built in the pipeline since 2017-2018, but inordinate delays in project execution have challenged the assumptions of developers.
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain constraints, the overall dues of electricity distribution companies (DISCOM) have ballooned.
  - The outstanding payments to RE generators increased by 73% to ₹19,400 crores in December 2021, as compared to ₹11,200 crores in December 2020.

Offshore potential

The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, has set a target of 5.0 GW of offshore wind installations by 2022 and 30 GW by 2030
Offshore wind power offers a plausible alternative as, Absence of any obstruction in the sea offers much better quality of wind and its conversion to electrical energy.
However, high cost of installation with the requirement of Marine structures in place, hinders the expansion possibilities. But, feasibility studies could help better exploration.

What are the Related Initiatives?

National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy:
- The main objective of the National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy, 2018 is to provide a framework for promotion of large grid connected wind-solar PV hybrid systems for optimal and efficient utilization of wind and solar resources, transmission infrastructure and land.
National Offshore Wind Energy Policy:
- The National Offshore wind energy policy was notified in October 2015 with an objective to develop the offshore wind energy in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) along the Indian coastline of 7,516.6 km.