What's Trending in Wind Power Development Technology in India?

By Nina Varghese

image: depositphotos

Newer technologies in wind power generation have greatly improved in the last twenty years. India also has benefited from these developments in wind power technology.
One of the emerging trends in India has been the multi mega watt turbines which can be installed at higher hub levels. The diameters of these rotors are larger than the earlier ones so the energy generated is more from one unit. The increase in altitude helps the wind turbine generators utilize the benefits of more powerful winds and reduced turbulence.

The installation of bigger turbines has seen a ten per cent increase in capacity from 1998 to 2010. The wind turbine generators which have been installed in India have seen a growth; 767 kW in 2004 to more than 1000 kW five years later. More than half the newly installed wind power turbines in India are these mega watt generators.

Two factors have resulted in more power being generated than estimated earlier: the advances made in technology and increasing the height of the hubs. In India, wind speeds fall in the moderate to low range, except in certain parts of the coast in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and in the Rann of Kutch, in the western state of Gujarat.

The shift towards these mega watt turbines is because the infrastructure to manage larger turbines has improved and so has the economics of the renewable energy (rE) sector.
The most important benefit of the larger generator is that the project costs come down on every unit generated. This is an added advantage as; most investors in this sector find that the initial investment in locating sites and setting up transmission paths is very high. So there is a need to make the most of the sites already into the generation of wind power.

The argument in favor of big turbines is that a lesser number of turbines will have to be installed which brings down the capital cost by reducing the real estate and maintenance cost as well as the cost of installation. This means, the companies could install three 2.0 megawatt turbines on a site instead of ten 600 kW turbines.

Another important trend is that there is also an increase in the funding options for wind power projects. Funding for these rE projects is available from a number of sources which include government agencies like the Rural Electrification Corporation and the Power Finance Corporation. Multilateral agencies like the Asian Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank also fund such projects. Indian banks are also keen on funding these rE projects.

Finally, market for rE is positive with an annual growth rate of 15 per cent. Private or nongovernmental funding into this sector is likely to be in the region of about $3 billion annually. Another reason for buoyancy in this sector is that government and regulatory frameworks are also expected to fall in place and have a positive impact on the industry as well as bolster up the rate of growth.

Nina Varghese has worked with mainline financial newspapers in India and Dubai.

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