‘India is generating barely 4% of its Wind energy potential’

India is currently harnessing only a fraction of the immense wind energy generation potential that it possesses. “We have the potential for 1100 Gigawatts (1 Gigawatt = billion watts) of wind energy generation, but are only generating 47 Gigawatts,” said Lalit Bohra, joint secretary of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), quoting estimates from the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE). His remarks came during an address at Windergy 2024, India’s premier wind energy trade fair and conference, supported by the MNRE.

Speaking at the event, he elaborated on the Indian government’s ambitious goal of achieving 500 gigawatts of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuels (renewable energy and nuclear) by 2030. Of these 500 gigawatts that is meant to be generated from non-fossil fuels, wind energy is expected to contribute 100 gigawatts. However, there are several challenges including the slow addition of wind energy generation infrastructure, power grid infrastructure, issues with land acquisition, shortage of skilled human resources, among others.

Lalit Bohra also touched upon the need for industry-academia collaboration to ensure that there is a constant supply of skilled human resources for the wind energy sector in India. Highlighting how Indian-made equipment and wind turbines are being exported, he indicated that there is a huge potential in offering the country’s talent to the global wind energy sector. He also mentioned the need for India to develop the capability to indigenously design and develop advanced wind turbines. Notably, India lacks specific design centres for this purpose, and efforts are underway to establish them with government support.

On the ongoing expansion of wind energy facilities in India, Girish Tanti, India chair of the Global Wind Energy Council, said that the country has the manufacturing capacity to expand at 15 Gigawatts a year, but is barely adding 4.5-5 Gigawatts of wind energy generation capacity in the ongoing year. To achieve the 100 Gigawatt milestone by 2030, he emphasised that India (which at present has 47 Gigawatt capacity) must add 10 Gigawatts annually for the next five years.

Expressing confidence in India’s ability to achieve 500 Gigawatts of non-fossil fuel energy generation by the end of this decade, Sudeep Jain, additional secretary at MNRE, said that the present generation capacity has surpassed 210 Gigawatts, while projects with a capacity of 160 Gigawatts are in the process of being installed, whereas projects capable of generating 100 Gigawatts are under tendering process.

India is presently placed fourth in the list of leading nations harnessing wind energy. According to Indian government data, India gets 59.34 per cent of its power from coal, 29 per cent from oil, 6.45 per cent from gas, 2.1 per cent from renewables, 1.65 per cent from hydroelectric projects, and 1.41 per cent from nuclear power plants.