Wind energy for sustainable development in India: current status and future prospects

Abstract

This paper presents the factual analysis of estimated potential, major initiatives so far, progress, achievements and prospects of futuredevelopment of wind energy sector in India. The estimated potential in prospective states of the country and their achievements against these are also presented. Paper also presents the analysis on emergence of India and its current position among the leading country's of the world in wind power installation. India is blessed with immense wind energy resources. The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), by using advanced LiDAR/SiDAR technique to collect data through more than 800 monitoring stations installed across the country, estimated the country's wind energy potential as 302 GW at the height of 100m from the ground level. India's cummulative installed capacity of wind energy as on 31 March 2020 was 37.69 GW accountig only 12.47% of the estimated potential. With this generation capacity, India is ranked fourth in the world, but the percentage of capacity utilisation is inadequate and this indicates the slow pace of wind energy development in the country. Study reveals that the auspicious target of affordadable clean energy for all can be achieved through the faster development of the wind energy sector. Paper also suggests that to accelerate the pace of wind projects installation and establish wind power as one among the prospective sources of energy for sustainable development, there is the need to ease the process of land availabilibity, develop the necessary transmission facility, ensure more financing to the wind sector and promote hybrid technologies.