Wind power capacity in India to grow 2000-2500 MW during 2016-17

wind power installed capacity in India

Wind power capacity addition in India wind is expected to grow between 2000 MW and 2500 MW during FY16 – FY17 as against 2312MW of capacity addition during FY15, says a new report from CARE Ratings.

Factors that favor the growth of wind power in India include incentives from government in the form of Generation based incentives and accelerated depreciation, relatively cost competitive mode of power generation, low gestation period for setting up of the project and introduction of floor/cap pricing mechanism for trading of Renewable Energy Certificates.

India has about 80 GW of untapped wind power as on March 31, 2015, the report said.

India has around wind potential of around 102.77 GW out of which the total installed capacity as on March 31, 2015 was 23.44 GW. India’s wind energy installed capacity was majorly spread across 8 states Rajasthan, Gujarat , Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala

As on January 2014, states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu had utilized their overall wind energy potential by more than 50 percent.

state-wise installed wind capacity indiaTamil Nadu leads in terms of wind power installed capacity constitutes about 32 percent of the total installed capacity followed by Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka contributing 19 percent, 16 percent, 14 percent and 11 percent of total share respectively.

Although the top 5 states contribute about 92 percent of the installed wind capacity, they still have 49 percent of the total untapped wind power potential, the report finds.

Acceleration depreciation, which was withdrawn with effect from April 01, 2012, has been reinstated the policy in July 2014. This tax benefit allows projects to deduct upto 80 percent of value of wind power equipment during the first year of project operation.

cost of conventional power versus wind power IndiaAlso the government is providing Generation Based Incentive (GBI) Scheme to wind electricity producers falling in the deserving categories. Captive producers are allowed for GBI but open access (merchant power) not allowed.

The impact of the RPOs on wind development would depend on the penalties and enforcement of the targets as well as an effective REC market to promote development of areas of the country with the most abundant wind resources.

Although National Action Plan on Climate Change has set an ambitious RPO target 15 percent of total power generated by 2020, most of the states have performed abysmally low in achieving the same.

Rajani Baburajan

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