India is the fifth largest Wind Energy producer in the world after the US and China and the potential is far from exhausted. Indian Wind Energy Association has estimated that with the current level of technology, the ‘on-shore’ potential for utilization of Wind Energy for electricity generation is of the order of 102 GW. The unexploited resource availability has the potential to sustain the growth of the Wind Energy Sector in India in the years to follow.
In a bid to encourage optimum use of Wind Energy potential in India, the Government will soon unveil a policy to give incentives including an interest rebate of 0.25 % for increasing capacity of wind mills of up to 1 MW. The move is in line with the Narendra Modi Government’s idea of stepping up power capacity by revamping existing projects rather than going for new one, for which acquiring land and getting green clearances may be time-consuming. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has floated a draft for Repowering of Wind Power Projects. The objective of the policy is to promote optimum utilisation of Wind Energy resources by creating facilitative framework for repowering. The draft said most of the wind-turbines installed up to the year 2000 are of capacity below 500 kW and are at sites having high Wind Energy potential. It is estimated that over 300 MW capacity installation is from wind turbines of 500 kW or below. In order to optimally utilise the Wind Energy resources, repowering is required, it noted.
As per the so-called ‘Wind re-powering Policy’ those producers generating less than 1 MW of Wind Power will get an interest rebate of 0.25 % from the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd., a state-owned power financing entity, for revamping their wind turbines. These producers will also get accelerated depreciation, a facility under the Income Tax Act, which allows businesses to recognize up to 100 % of the cost of a plant or machinery in one year rather than recognizing it over the useful life of the asset.
In general India is giving a strong push to renewable energy in line with its commitment to cut carbon emissions by 35 % and increase the use of renewable energy sources to generate at least 40 % of its power needs by 2030. Currently, about 70 % of the total power capacity is fired by fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil. Renewable energy received a massive boost in the budget proposals announced on 28 February by finance minister Arun Jaitley, along with a modest increase in overall allocation for science research. The budget of the Ministry of Renewable energy now stands at $ 746.31 mn, compared to the $ 36,86 mn allocated in the previous fiscal year.
Last year the government raised the target for renewable energy capacity to 175,000 MW by 2022. This included 100,000 MW for solar, 60,000 MW for wind, 10,000 MW for biomass and 5,000 MW for small hydro.
The total capacity of grid interactive renewable energy installed till 31 January was about 39,511 MW. This includes 25,188 MW from wind power, 5,248 MW from solar 4,187 MW from small hydro power and 4,760 MW from bio-power.
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