Story of Wind Energy in India
India is a vast country with a huge population. As the country is growing, the demand of power is also increasing at a steady pace. Renewable energy is an eco-friendly solution for meeting that demand. Whole world is now aware of the bad effects of using fossil fuel for electrical power generation and looking towards renewable energy as a solution. India isn’t an exception, it started to explore wind energy -as a part of renewable energy source- long back and with many ups and downs moving forward.
In India around late fifties and early sixties some windmill was imported from Europe and some were developed indigenously.
During December 1952,CSIR(Council of Scientific and Industrial Research)and renowned Power Engineer Mr.Maneklal Sankalchand Thaker (who eventually became the Director General of CSIR in 1954)had initiated a project to gauge the potential of wind energy in India.
The CSIR and IMD(Indian Metrological Department) formed a Wind Power Sub-Committee
under Dr.P.Nilakantan (Ex Director of National Aeronautical Lab.) as Convener, in order to assess the practical possibility of harnessing wind power and its economic viability. That Sub-Committee had reviewed the data regarding surface wind,velocity,duration and initiated surveys on potential sites for installation of wind turbines. This team had also successfully engineered and tested windmills made of wood and bamboo.
After about two years, in 1954 September; CSIR and UNESCO jointly organised a symposium in New Delhi on wind and solar energy. In this symposium E.W.Golding an authority of wind energy generation from England (a Power Engineer by profession) was also present. He could visualise the promising potential of Indian Wind Energy and recommended an extensive and full time professional study at various parts of the country. In order to do that, he proposed to establish dedicated laboratories and wind turbine generators development facilities in this country, these were implemented by CSIR in 1957 resulting in to establishing of twenty survey stations across India to map the wind velocity and pattern. Indigenously developing and testing of very small (6kw -8kw) wind turbines was also the part of job of these stations. With the continuous progress in this area, during 1960,National Aeronautical Laboratory (NAL) established a new Wind Power Division in Bangalore. They along with other groups continuously surveyed and mapped the wind energy potential till 1980.
In 1961,at Porbandar (Gujarat),trial of a small(6kw-8kw) wind Turbine was also started. This was made by a German Company ‘Allgaier’ and was presented to India by West German Government.
After a gap of some years, in 1985 first large wind project in India began in Veraval (Gujarat) with 40kw ‘Polenko’ make turbines (Dutch) and first connected to the grid. This project was initiated by Dr.K.S.Rao then Director of GEDA and was a joint venture with J.K.Synthetics Ltd.Unfortunately,the project failed to perform well in terms of generation but, it established the technical viability of connecting wind turbines directly to the grid. Meanwhile, the demonstration programme of wind power got a massive boost by the Indian Government and several projects were taken up across coastal belt of India.
In1986, couple of such projects were taken up in Ratnagiri (Maharashtra),Okha (Gujarat)and Tuticorin (Tamilnadu) with ‘Vestas’-55kw wind turbines (Spanish) under the direct support of MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy).
All these projects laid out the foundation of wind energy in India and proved that it is a viable source of energy that can be successful in terms of technology as well as business economics.
The journey began.
I will write about the growth of wind energy in our country(India) in a separate blog. But to satisfy the curiosity of my readers I am giving below the details of top five wind energy firms in India as on date.
Up to December 2019 total installed capacity is 37.669GW (GWEC,2020) and the country has the fourth largest wind energy capacity in the world after Chaina,U.S.A. and Germany. All the growth has happened till 2017 and after that, there is a sharp decline being observed in this sector. There are reasons behind it and I won’t discuss it here.
Last highest ever capacity addition was done in 2016–2017 and that was 5.5.GW(Gigawatt). In 2015–2016 capacity addition was 3.4GW.India has an ambitious target to achieve 60GW wind power mark by 2022.That seems not possible to achieve in the present scenario.
India has an enormous potential. It has been estimated as 302GW at 100m Hub height. Manufacturers like Suzlon and InoxWind have already introduced turbines with140m & 120m hub height respectively to tap the maximum potential. With all this efforts 10% of total installed capacity of the country is now being shared by wind energy and five wind energy firms in the country those are contributing maximum in this 10% slice are:
1. Muppandal Wind Farm (Capacity:1,500MW):
This farm is situated on the coast of Arabian Sea owned by Tamil Nadu Development Agency. It is probably the oldest and largest wind farm in India. I have seen turbines of very old models (like 2 blade turbine)and small turbines (like 200KW) here. All most all make of turbines (like Vestas,Suzlon,Enercon,NEG Micon and some old imported makers) are present in this farm ranging from 200KW to 1650KW. Suzlon 2.1MW turbine is installed at Sankeneri near to this farm.
2. Jaisalmer Wind Park (Capacity:1,064 MW):
It was developed by Suzlon Energy in the desert of Rajasthan. This park comprises of number of sites including SodaMada,Baramsar,Amarsagar,Tenjuva,Badabaug and some other sites. During 2001,I had visited this site during its initial start period and last visited 2003 when it was in growth phase. All model of Suzlon (except 1MW model)ranging from 350KW model to 2.1 MW model is present in this wind park.
3.Brahmanvel Wind Farm (Capacity: 528 MW):
It has been developed by Parakh Agro Industries in Dhule district of Maharashtra. Suzlon has a large population of wind turbines in this farm consisting of 1250KW and 1500KW models. During 2002,looking to the potential-when I was working there- Suzlon Energy was thinking of making its Operation & Maintenance hub in this site. Sun-N-Sand Hotels, MSPL,B P Energy and Shivashree Techno are the other project owners in this wind farm.
4. Dhalgaon Wind Farm (Capacity:278MW):
It is another wind farm in Sangli district,Maharashtra. In 2005 this farm was commissioned comprising of Suzlon and Enercon turbines.
5.Vankuswade Wind Park (Capacity:259 MW):
This wind park was commissioned in 1999 first as I can recall.Started with Suzlon 350KW turbines on a 21km long mountain plateau 1,150 meter above Koyana dam reservoir,40 km away from Satara town. I had spent many days, weeks and months in this cold, wet ,cloudy and windy site during the period from 1999 to 2003. Enercon wind park was also present in the near vicinity.
Maharashtra has the second largest wind energy installed capacity in the country after Tamil Nadu. In the front of renewable(mainly wind) power, Tamil Nadu is on the top of grid connected power (10562.39 MW) ,followed by Maharashtra (7647.60 MW) and then Karnataka(7457.97 MW).
