Wind Energy the Indian Scenario Essays

Wind Energy the Indian Scenario Essays Wind Energy the Indian Scenario Essay Wind Energy the Indian Scenario Essay In 2008, India was the country that brought online the third largest amount of wind energy, after the US and China, and it now ranks fifth in total installed capacity with 10,925 MW of wind power installed at the end of 2009. A strong domestic manufacturing base has been main underlying factor for the growth of the Indian wind energy market. The Indian wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon is now a recognized player on the global market, and many international companies are established in India. India has a great untapped potential for wind energy. According to official estimates, the country’s total wind energy resource amounts to 48 GW of commercially viable capacity, but some experts think that this figure is on the conservative side, and that technological improvements could significantly increase this potential. The positive development of wind energy in India has mainly been driven by progressive state level legislation, including policy measures such as renewable portfolio standards and feed-in-tariffs. At the moment, there is no coherent national renewable energy policy to drive the development of wind energy. This is urgently needed to realize the country’s full potential and reap the benefits for both the environment and the economy. The Indian government is currently considering the introduction of a national renewable energy policy, so this report comes as a timely reminder of how important a role wind energy could play in securing India’s energy security, curbing its CO2 emissions, providing new employment and boosting economic development. The Indian wind industry, both domestic and international, stands ready to do its part in achieving an energy revolution in India. With sufficient political will and the right policy frameworks, it could do even more. This paper gives a brief on the history of wind energy in India, the current state of production, the major policies that are guiding the industry at the moment and also suggests a way forward for the industry. 1) RENEWABLE ENERGY SCENARIO IN INDIA : In the early 1980s, the Indian government established the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) to encourage diversification of the country’s energy supply, and satisfy the increasing energy demand of a rapidly growing economy. In 2006, this ministry was renamed the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). Renewable energy is growing rapidly in India. With an installed capacity of 16. 4 GW, renewable energy sources (excluding large hydro) currently account for 7. 7 % of India’s overall power generation capacity. By 2012, the Indian government is planning to add an extra 14 GW of renewable sources. In its 10th Five Year Plan, the Indian government had set itself a target of adding 3. 5 GW of renewable energy sources to the generation mix. In reality, however, nearly double that figure was achieved. In this period, more than 5. 4 GW of wind energy was added to the generation mix, as well as 1. 3 GW from other RE sources. The target set for the period from 2008-2012 was increased to 14 GW, 10. 5 GW of which to be new wind generation capacity. In India the average life of a wind power generator is between 20-25 years. The Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) estimates that there is a potential of around 90,000 MW for power generation from different renewable energy sources in the country, including 48,561 MW of wind power, 14,294 MW of small hydro power and 26,367 MW of biomass. Hence, it can be seen that wind forms the major chunk of renewable energy portfolio in India that is estimated to be tapped in the coming years ahead and hence it forms an important part of study at the present moment. 2) WHY IS WIND SO IMPORTANT? It is well known that wind is certainly an inexhaustible abundant source of energy which is caused by the differential solar radiation on the Earth’s geo-diverse surfaces, having different degrees of absorption, reflection, refraction, convection and transmission. Wind power is the most established amongst the renewable energy sources. Wind power can be generated on a large scale compared to solar and other renewable sources and hence it becomes commercially viable. Wind mills are easy to install and require much less area compared to solar power per MW. Wind being a renewable energy free from any kind of combustion, is a very clean source of energy with zero GHG emissions. This implies that capacity addition in wind power will help in reducing the carbon footprint at the same time closing the gap between demand and supply of power in the country. It also results in significant saving of potable/drinking water, which is much needed for human survival. Electricity generation by wind consumes only 1/200th or 1/400th of water that is used by nuclear, oil or coal. But we also need to be clear that a country like ours with such a long coast line need not necessarily be having economic/technical potential for wind power with its diurnal variations of land breeze/sea breeze. At the other extreme the mere occurrence of good monsoon or frequency of cyclones amp; hurricanes may not provide an economical viability or a technical feasibility of wind power. 3) HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF WIND POWER IN INDIA : Recognizing the importance of tapping renewable energy sources for power generation, India has been working in this direction for more than two decades. The Government of India realized the importance of private sector participation in the wind power sector as early as 1983/84. Accordingly, a national programme was initiated to tap the then estimated potential of 20000 MW by adopting a market-oriented strategy. This ultimately led to successful commercial development of wind power technology and substantial additions to power generation capacity in the country. Significant progress made in this sector was the result of policy support measures and incentives announced by the government for implementing the latest wind energy technologies and encouraging private entrepreneurs to take up commercial projects. After the announcement of the ‘Private Power Policy’ in 1991, an increase in the private sector participation was observed in the field of wind energy. This, along with a booming economy and the attractive fiscal incentives, provided the impetus for accelerated growth of the wind power sector as shown in ‘Figure 1’ below. FIGURE 1 – GROWTH OF WIND POWER IN INDIA (INSTALLED CAPACITY IN MW / YEAR VS YEAR) After a brief downturn between 1996 amp; 1998, the scenario started looking up in 1999 and this upswing is still continuing. The main factors that have contributed to this positive growth are: a) Technological maturity and introduction of machines, suitable for the Indian conditions (e. g. wind turbines designed for low wind regimes) that resulted in overall higher capacity utilization. This factor helped in attracting more investments from the private sector. ) Introduction of bigger capacity and more cost-effective wind turbines. c) Better site selection due to more sophisticated and rigorous wind resource assessment and micro siting. d) Conducive policy regime introduced by some states (Maharashtra was one such state that came out with an investor friendly package, including attractive power purchase prices). 4) WIND ENERGY POTENTIAL IN INDIA : The total potential for wind power in India was first estimated by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET) at around 45 GW, and was recently increased to 48. GW. This figure was also adopted by the government as the official estimate. The C-WET study was based on a comprehensive wind mapping exercise initiated by MNRE, which established a country-wide network of 1050 wind monitoring and wind mapping stations in 25 Indian States. This effort made it possible to assess the national wind potential and identify suitable areas for harnessing wind power for commercial use, and 216 suitable sites have been identified. However, the wind measurements were carried out at lower hub heights and did not take into account technological innovation and improvements and repowering of old turbines to replace them with bigger ones. At heights of 55-65 meters, the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA) estimates that the potential for wind development in India is around 65-70 GW. The World Institute for Sustainable Energy, India (WISE) considers that with larger turbines, greater land availability and expanded resource exploration, the potential could be as big as 100 GW. ) STATE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF WIND POWER GENERATION CAPACITY : FIGURE – 2 (C-WET’s WIND POWER DENSITY MAP) Table 1 – Installed Capacity per state (MW) State| March 2010| March 2009| March 2008| March 2007| March 2006| March 2005| Tamilnadu| 4907| 4304. 5| 3873. 4| 3492. 7| 2894. 6| 2037| Karnataka| 1473| 1327. 4| 1011. 4| 821. 1| 584. 5| 410. 7| Maharashtra| 2078| 1938. 9| 1755. 9| 1487. 7| 1001. 3| 456. 2| Rajasthan| 1088| 738. 4| 538. 8| 469. 8| 358. 1| 284. 8| Andhra Pradesh| 236| 122. 5| 122. 5| 122. | 121. 1| 120. 6| Madhya Pradesh| 229| 212. 8| 187. 7| 57. 3| 40. 3| 28. 9| Kerala| 28| 27. 0| 10. 5| 2| 2| 2| Gujarat| 1864| 1566. 5| 1252. 9| 636. 6| 338| 253| Others| 4| 1. 1| 1. 1| 1. 1| 1. 1| 1. 1| Total| 11807| 10242. 3| 8754. 0| 7090. 8| 5341| 3594. 3| The Wind Resource Assessment Programme carried out in India to reassess the wind potential was one of the largest programmes of its kind in the world, covering around 900 wind monitoring and mapping stations in 24 states and Union Territories. So far 208 potential sites have been identified in 13 states. As per Table 1, states with high wind potential include Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. It is proposed to prepare an Indian Wind Atlas by using state-of-the-art software like WASP (Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Programme) on GIS platform. This will encourage the rapid growth of wind energy in India. The map shown here indicates where WASP has been applied. WASP has been used to establish national wind atlases for the ‘red’ countries and WASP has been applied for regional and local studies in the ‘blue’ countries. 6) OFF-SHORE WIND POTENTIAL IN INDIA : Offshore wind development zones are generally considered to be ten kilometers or more from land. Offshore wind turbines are less obtrusive than turbines on land, as their apparent size and noise is mitigated by distance. Because water has less surface roughness than land (especially deeper water), the average wind speed is usually considerably higher over open water. Capacity factors (utilization rates) are considerably higher than for onshore and near shore locations. Transporting large wind turbine components (tower sections, nacelles, and blades) is much easier over water than on land, because ships and barges can handle large loads more easily than trucks/lorries or trains. On land, large goods vehicles must negotiate bends on roadways, which fixes the maximum length of a wind turbine blade that can move from point to point on the road network; no such limitation exists for transport on open water. Offshore wind turbines will probably continue to be the largest turbines in operation, since the high fixed costs of the installation are spread over more energy production, reducing the average cost. Turbine components (rotor blades, tower sections) can be transported by barge, making large parts easier to transport offshore than on land, where turn clearances and underpass clearances of available roads limit the size of turbine components that can be moved by truck. Similarly, large construction cranes are difficult to move to remote wind farms on land, but crane vessels easily move over water. Offshore wind farms tend to be quite large, often involving over hundreds of turbines. CWET (Centre for Wind Energy Technology) has taken some initial efforts to survey the potential in the field of off-shore wind power generation. A working group consisting of expert members from National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) and C-WET had, in late 2008 or 2009, started studies for feasibility of offshore wind measurements. The team had initiated the work on getting the clearances for offshore measurements near Dhanushkoti ( close to Rameswaram ). For a project planning to kick start offshore wind measurements, the team visited Dhanushkoti and collected the GPS co-ordinates with the help of land surveyors. The main objective was to take up wind resource assessment studies in the southern tip of India, particularly at two locations viz. Koodankulam (Kanyakumari) and Rameshwaram (Dhanuskodi), and to examine the feasibility for setting up offshore wind farms. The aim was to collect data set of wind speeds, wind direction and to gather sea temperature, sea current characteristics, and waves data for environmental research, design, and development of offshore wind farms, and to assess potential impacts of these measured parameters on the wind farms etc. Some preliminary data suggests that the wind power densities are about 250–300 W/m2 by the Arabian Sea (6-6. 4 m/s), 250–600 W/m2 (6-7. 8 m/s) by the Indian Ocean, and 150–500 W/m2 (5. 1-7. 4) by the Bay of Bengal (Rameswaram area). A minimum wind speed of about 6. 5 m/s is required for offshore wind farms, and as suggested earlier, many regions in Northern Europe oceans have wind speeds much in excess of 6. 5 m/s. The data presented earlier indicates that India is not blessed with such high offshore wind speeds. Sadly, on the corporate side, there have been few, if any, efforts on offshore wind. The only piece of news that indicated some corporate interest was from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), when, in April 2009, it announced its plans to tap offshore wind energy. After setting up its first 50 MW onshore wind energy farm in Gujarat, ONGC announced it was planning to tap offshore wind potential. In this context, ONGC held a series of meetings and collected a myriad of data related to offshore wind potentials. The company had mentioned at the time that a detailed study would be conducted to find out the viability of this offshore project. However, after this announcement, little detail has been forthcoming on this. These are all the data I have on offshore wind developments and progress in India. As per the latest data available, the cumulative offshore installed capacity globally stood at 1,421 MW as of 2007 and this figure is expected to rise to 12,000MW by the year 2013. 7) POLICY ENVIRONMENT FOR WIND ENERGY IN INDIA : The Indian government’s stated target is for renewable energy to contribute 10% of total power generation capacity and have a 4-5% renewable energy share in the electricity mix by 2012. This means that renewable energy would grow at a faster rate than traditional power generation, accounting for around 20% of the total added capacity planned in the 2008-2012 timeframe. Some of the important policies that are allowing this sector to grow are listed below. The Electricity Act 2003: The Electricity Act required the SERCs to set Renewable Portfolio Standards for electricity production in their state. Following this, the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) issued guidelines to all state governments to create an attractive environment for the export, purchase, wheeling and banking of electricity generated by wind power projects. Some important policy measures for wind power in India are: * Fiscal and financial incentives : * 80% accelerated depreciation over one or two years 10 year income tax holiday for wind power generation projects * Excise duty relief on certain components * Some states have also announced special tariffs, ranging from Rs 3-4 per kWh, with a national average of around Rs 3. 50 per kWh * Wheeling, banking and third party sales, buy-back facility by states * Guarantee market through a specified renewable portfolio standard in some states, as decided by the state electricity regulator by way of power purchase agreements * Reduced wheeling charges as compared to conventional energy. * Land Policies : The Ministry of Environment and Forests has issued guidelines for diversion of forest lands for non-forest purposes, particularly to enable wind generation. * Clearance of leasing and forest land for up to a period of 30 years for wind developers. * Financial assistance : * Setting up of the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), the premier finance agency of the Government of India to provide soft loans for renewable energy projects, particularly for demonstration and private sector projects. * Wind resource assessment: * The government set up the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET) to map wind energy potentials. The C-WET has set up more than 1,000 wind monitoring and wind mapping centers across 25 states. * Wind mapping at 50 meters (C-WET) and 60-80 meters height (private companies) * F eed in tariff and Generation Based Incentive (GBI) : MNRE has decided to incentivise actual energy generation rather than only capacity addition. To achieve this task, it has been proposed that power producers shall be given some incentive on every unit generated over and above the feed in tariff approved by particular state. Scheme for implementation for GBI for grid interactive power projects: * Objectives : ) To broaden the investor base and create a level playing field between various classes of investors. b) To incentivize higher efficiencies with the help of a generation/outcome based incentive. c) To facilitate entry of large independent power producers and foreign direct investors to the wind power sector. * Incentive and Duration: Under the  Ã‚   scheme, a GBI will be provided to wind electricity producers   @ Rs. 0. 50 per unit of electricity fed into the grid for a period not less than 4 years and a maximum period of 10 years in parallel with accelerated depreciation on a mutually exclusive manner, with a cap of Rs. 2 lakhs per MW. The total disbursement in a year will not exceed one fourth of the maximum limit of the incentive i. e. Rs. 15. 50 lakhs per MW during the first four years. Utilization of Wind Energy in India : Despite the high installed capacity, the actual utilization of wind power in India is low because policy incentives are geared towards installation rather than operation of the plants. This is why only 1. 6% of actual power production in India comes from wind although the installed capacity is 6%. The government is considering the addition of incentives for ongoing operations of the installed wind power plants. Table 2 gives a detailed picture of the current tariff rates offered by the states in which wind power is currently being generated and it also highlights the future price escalation mechanism proposed by each state. An inference that can be drawn from this data is that the majority of the states do not propose a tariff escalation for the next 10-20 years, and as the tariff rates are competitive to power conventionally generated from the grid through fossil fuels, we could say that this is a positive step in ensuring further participation and growth in wind power generation. TABLE 2 State Tariff Rates and Price Mechanisms Some State Policy Incentives : * Energy Buyback , power wheeling and banking facilities for wind power generating plants * Sale Tax Concessional benefits * Electricity Tax exemption * Capital Subsidy 8) KEY FACTORS AFFECTING WIND POWER GENERATION IN INDIA: a) GROWTH RATE OF THE ECONOMY : Market growth rates in these scenarios are based on a mixture of historical figures and information obtained from analyses of the wind turbine market. The annual growth rate envisaged is of 25% per annum, but the wind industry has experienced much higher growth rates in recent years. The growth rate in the last 5 years averaged was more than 35% of installed wind power capacity. The above growth rate assumes significant repowering (replacing of smaller old turbines by modern and more powerful machines) will take place in the period up to 2030. It is also expected that due to the large coastline of 7000km, offshore installations will play an important role in the timeframe. This will substantially increase the overall wind energy potential. b) TURBINE CAPACITY: Individual turbines have been steadily growing it terms of the maximum electricity output they achieve when operating at full power. The average capacity of wind turbines installed in India as off 2008 was 1MW, up from just 400kW in 2000. The largest turbines now available commercially are approximately 6MW in capacity. An assumption can be made that, the average size will increase to 1. 5MW in 2013 to 2MW by 2030. It is possible that the figure will turn out to be greater in practice, requiring fewer turbines to achieve the same installed capacity. It is also assumed that each turbine’s operational lifetime will be of 20 years, after which it will need to be replaced. c) CAPACITY FACTOR: Capacity factor’ refers to the percentage capacity that a turbine installed in a particular location will deliver over the course of a year. This is primarily an assessment of the wind resource at a given site, but capacity factors are also affected by the efficiency of the turbine and its suitability for the particular location. For example a 1MW turbine operating at a 25% capacity factor will deliver 2190 MWh of e lectricity in one year. It is assumed that improvements in both wind turbine technology and the sitting of wind farms will result in a steady increase. ) CAPITAL COSTS: The capital cost for wind energy project shall include wind turbine generator including its auxiliaries, land cost, site development charges and other civil works, transportation charges, evacuation cost up to inter-connection point, financing charges and IDC. The normative capital cost of the wind energy projects shall be Rs. 467Lakh/MW for FY 2010-11 and shall be subject to the adjustment over the control period on account of changes in the wholesale price index for steel and electrical machinery as per the indexation mechanism specified in the RE Regulations. The detailed computations of the indexation mechanism and determination of the capital cost for FY 2010-11. The capital cost of producing wind turbines has fallen steadily over the past 20 years as turbine design has been largely concentrated on the three-bladed upwind model with variable speed and pitch blade regulation, manufacturing techniques have been optimized, and mass production and automation have resulted in economies of scale. Darrieus Three Bladed Horizontal Axis H-VAWT 9) CURRENT TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS IN INDIA: The modern machines manufactured in India with foreign collaboration have capacities more than 1 MW and they are highly suited for India. * The technology option in the first phase of kinetic to mechanical energy has been shifting from constant speed rotor to variable speed rotor all over the world. The variable speed rotor is of capable capturing about 15 to 20% more energy from the turbulent wind. * Conversion of mechanical to electrical energy through the generators is also going through several advancements in technology in the recent years. From traditional squirrel cage induction generators which convert AC-AC as the wind varies has been shifting to synchronized AC-DC-AC type of generators for efficient power capture from the wind. * In the aero dynamic controls, the shift is taking place from traditional stall control to pitch control and modern machines have active controls independently for stall as well as pitch mechanism. These sophisticated active controls require power electronics and hydraulics interfacing with various systems. Some of the latest Wind Energy Generators use electro-magnetic/mechanical control systems instead of hydraulics 0) MISCONCEPTIONS REGARDING WIND ENERGY : a) Wind Turbines kill birds and also have serious environmental impacts: It is a fact that a number of birds have been killed by wind mills. A detailed study done in the United States has indicated that the number of birds currently kill per year due to high end wind installations is one to two birds. Comparatively, more birds die every year because of highway traffic, manmade structures and housecats. These wind turbines also do not affect the migratory patterns of birds and as studies have indicated, the birds that have been occasionally killed are of common species. ) Installation of wind turbines produces a humming noise that is harmful to human health: In continuation to the point above, studies done by research teams in the United Kingdom have proven that the low humming noise produced by the rotating of wind mills has absolutely no effect on human health. With the improvement in technology, this humming noise has considerably reduced over the last few years, by around 30% in terms of decibel levels over the last four years. c) Wind Turbine Farms have a large land foot print: This is a common misconception that people hold in their mind. The actual land foot print of each wind turbine is just the area covered by the wind turbine column that is the foundation of the wind turbine in the ground. The area around the wind turbine can be used for agriculture cultivation or other purposes. In India a number of wind turbines are placed on hilly areas and hence do not take up valuable agricultural land. 11) WIND MANUFACTURERS IN INDIA : There are more than 12 manufacturers of Large Wind Turbines/Large Wind Generators which are grid connected to State Electricity Boards. Most of the manufacturer’s facilities are located in Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Puducherry. As the technology has been steadily improving, it has resulted in the cost reduction of more than 8 times in the last 3 decades. This has increased the number of new entrants in the wind energy sector. From Table 3 given below you can see some of the names of the manufacturers along with the foreign collaboration: TABLE 3 – Large wind generator manufacturers in India From the above list, Suzlon Energy Ltd. is the largest manufacturer in India; It is the world’s 3rd leading player in wind energy generators. Apart from meeting the India wind energy generator market, for several manufacturers it is also an export opportunity – around Rs. 8000 crores worth of equipment was exported abroad. Suzlon has supplied over 7,000 MW of wind power generating capacity equipment in India. In 2006, it acquired Hansen Transmissions NV , the world’s second largest wind gearbox manufacturers, completing its quest to integrate all critical components into its value chain. In terms of net worth, Suzlon is the most valuable wind power company but not as measured by market value. Suzlon currently operates the largest wind park in the world, the 584 MW wind park in the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu. For small wind generation manufacturers in India ( Small wind generation systems with generation capacity upto 50kW) the major players in the Indian industry are : * Unitron Energy, Pune * Vaigunth Ener Tek Ltd, Chennai * LeanWay Energy Pvt. Ltd, Pune * Tachometric Controls, Pune * Wind Turbine Systems Ltd, Bangalore * M/S Machinocraft, Pune * Novergy Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd. , Udaipur * Pawanmitra Aero Energies, Tiruppur * Pioneer Wincon Pvt. Ltd Small wind generation systems have tremendous potential in India as a large percentage of the population is still not connected to the grid and hence depends on diesel generators in many areas for intermittent power supply. The small wind generators have the capabilities to replace the diesel generators entirely and with the help of battery storage that can be used for small wind and solar hybrids, areas currently off the grid can be powered, thereby replacing the need for a connection to a power grid. In the last six months, big players like Tata Power Company from the house of Tata ave started experimenting with wind mills of 2 kW capacity and they to plan to enter the small wind generation industry over the coming year. 12) ROLE OF C-WET IN THE INDIAN WIND INDUSTRY : C-WET is an acronym for Center for Wind Energy Technology. As earlier mentioned, C-WET is an Autonomous Ramp;D Organization, established under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and it has enabled orderly wind p ower development in India. It offers value added services in terms of identification of potential windy sites and project planning, Micrositing and due diligence studies in the area of wind resource assessment.. C-WET has an International standard Test Station at Kayathar close to Kanyakumari which can test wind turbines from 225 kW to 1 MW class machines. C-WET also ensures the quality of the machines which are connected to Indian power utilities to protect the investors as well as manufacturers utilities equally. C-WET follows IEC:WT-01 standards and carries out the type certification of wind turbines under a scheme called TAPS 2000 which has been customized for Indian conditions with the help and guidance of experts from RISO/Denmark which follows several standards which are currently in vogue in the Indian Wind Industry. C-WET coordinates with several academic institutions, National Research Laboratories and private companies independently in Research and Development in the area of wind energy to facilitate cost reduction in wind electric generation. C-WET assists the regulatory body which is the Central Electricity Regulatory Authority (CERC) in technical matters on policy and regulatory issues. It does the design evaluation for the purpose of certification of assessing the various models which are being offered by several manufacturers in Indian market following International standards. C-WET also undertakes Human Resource development suitable to the Indian Wind Energy Industry by conducting National and International Training Programmes. Since this is an area of multi disciplinary nature, academicians amp; industry and Scientists of C-WET join hand together to complete the training programmes. 13) THE FUTURE INDIAN WIND ENERGY SCENARIO : The main issue of Wind Power Development in India is availability of accurate wind potential data for regions all over the country. C-WET has assessed ore than 620 Stations spread all over the Country by continuous monitoring of wind as a resource and identified more than 216 locations as economically viable and wind potential. As on date, in India a site which has more than 200 watts per square meter as Wind Power Density (WPD) is declared economically viable. With recently picked up micro wind generation i. e to exploit urban wind areas and low wind areas and to facilitate remote village electrification domestic wind mills of . 3 kW to 30 kW are being adopted. This micro wind generation as on date has a low market demand since it has been mostly developed as a standalone system which is often not grid connected. The grid interface system which will have similar concepts such as net metering along with exporting to grid and importing from the grid in a house connection is likely to be possible soon. It has fast track implementation of wind power projects given by Government having fiscal and financial initiative. India is likely to penetrate the wind as a green power up to 10% of electricity generation of the Nation, with the highly supportive Governmental policies. The major issue of utilization of wind power has been the infirmity of the wind. This can be overcome the current sophisticated technology to forecast wind enabling load scheduling to meet the load demand and generation gap. Innovative approach to Operation and Maintenance â€Å"Oamp;M†, is now being implemented using Central Monitoring systems and SCADA type continuous monitoring with remote controls. Another important issue in the Indian wind power development is development of infrastructure facility in wind farmable areas such as roads and logistics for larger machine components to reach windy Regions. Other infrastructural facilities for establishment of human habitation wind farm and establishment of electrical grid for evacuation of the power generated by the wind turbines. Most of the State and Central Government have been concentrating on these infrastructural developments and hence wind power in India has become more viable and the growth is sustained at the global rate of more than 20% every year. Table 4 gives a few keys for sustaining this 20% wind power growth envisaged in India TABLE 4 Wind Power Industry Trends Other Important Areas for the Future of Wind Generation in India : * In the coming years we need proper tariff and inflation adjustments for the wind energy sector. * Preferential tariff has proven to be the most successful instrument in accelerating power generation from renewable energy and should be applied to wind energy generation. * Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) need to be made available more easily and should be traded so that Renewable Purchase Obligations can be fulfilled in states where sufficient renewable energy is not available within the state. These certificates also need to be electronic in nature to ensure timeliness in transactions and terminate the need for physical documents to be exchanged. 14) CONCLUSION: The wind energy sector has grown significantly in India despite ups and downs. Today after having surmounted many a problems, wind in India is known to be a very mature industry. Presently, the focus is on higher capacity machines and low-wind regime turbines, which operate in class two wind regimes. Higher tower heights and wider swept areas have resulted from the experience gained by India in the last two decades. Equally important has been the ability of wind power producers in dealing with grid problems in the country. Electricity produced from renewable energy resources like wind requires two kinds of support, namely a price support mechanism that enables power producers to enter the market and make a reasonable profit and a stable regulatory environment that encourages renewables based power. Characterized by the non-internalization of external costs of energy production, costs of wind power tend to be significantly higher than that of conventional power. But the cost of delivered power should be measured in terms of overall benefits associated with that form of power, and their implications. In such a scenario, wind power outweighs the conventional power on account of their environment-friendliness and positive impact on the social development. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Indian Wind Energy Scenario – by Amit Kumar, TERI, D S Block, India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110003 * Renewable Energy in India: Business Opportunities. Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources 2001. * Introduction of the Indian Wind Energy Sector – by Dr. S. Gomathinayagam, Executive Director, C-WET, Chennai – 600 * Indian Wind Energy Outlook 2009 * www. gwec. net * www. indianwindpower. com * www. windpowerindia. com * www. ireda. in * www. wikipedia. org