Chennai:
India is planning to tap Offshore Wind energy and has identified Tamil
Nadu and Gujarat coasts to launch two pilot projects through a joint
venture company.
Alok Shrivastava, joint secretary of Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy (MNRE), said that Global Wind Energy Council will be selecting
the two sites one each in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu for the pilot
projects.
This comes in the wake of European Delegation to India granting the
Facilitating Offshore Wind in India (FOWIND) project to the consortium
led by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) in June 2013.
The formal contract between the EU Delegation to India and the FOWIND
project consortium was signed in December 2013.
Shrivastava said once the site is finalized a joint venture between
blue chip companies will formalized. Besides MNRE, other companies
include National Thermal Power Corporation, Power Grid Corporation,
Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, Power Finance Corporation,
Power Trading Corporation, National Institute of Wind Energy and
Gujarat Power Corporation.
He said the Memorandum of Understanding has been finalized and in the
next couple of weeks it will be signed.
He said MNRE has plans to tap 1000 MW by 2020. “Through the two pilots
we plan to tap 100 MW of offshore power,” he said.
Interestingly, MNRE is in discussion with the state government . “We
are waiting to hear from the state government,” he said.
Interestingly, MNRE is also looking at having a pilot at Andaman and
Nicobar Island, said Shrivastava.
Chairman and managing director of Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency
said Tamil Nadu is keen to see offshore wind energy gain momentum. He
said that once the nitty gritties are worked for the pilot project
then the state would look forward to participating in the project.
The FOWIND consortium will undertake actions to assess and promote
offshore wind power development in India and to help facilitate
India’s transition towards a low carbon energy future, said Shruti
Shukla of GWEC.
This project is supported by a grant of Euro 4 million from the EU.
Further a contribution of EUR 500,000 and EUR 250,000 is provided by
Gujarat Power corporation Limited and IL&FS Energy Development Company
Limited respectively as co-financing for the project.
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