Wind energy, particularly offshore wind, provides growing promise across the globe. In terms of generating wind power as also manufacturing equipment, India has a lot of catching up to do
A lesser known legal battle lost by US President Donald Trump in the UK Supreme Court in 2015 was on blocking the installation of 11 wind energy machines off the coast of Scotland. News reports earlier this month stated that the first unit of this facility has just been installed by the Swedish energy company Vattenfall at a site close to the city of Aberdeen. This wind farm is located 1.5 miles from the coast, and is permanently visible from the exclusive golf course built by US President Trump as part of his business activity some years ago. Objections of the Trump business establishment against this development, therefore, have literally gone with the wind.
Significantly, two of the 11 machines have been upgraded to a capacity of 8.8 MW, a size attained for the first time in developing offshore wind energy capacity. The power of these machines can be imagined from the fact that just one rotation of its blades would be capable of powering an average UK home for a full 24-hour day.
President Trump’s objection to this wind farm, which he pursued through the legal system in Scotland and the UK, was doubtless motivated by the fact that each turbine reaches 190m into the air, which is twice the height of Big Ben, london’s and Britain’s most prominent landmark. Significantly, the objections of the Trump business organisation were not upheld by both the Scottish and UK courts.
Once this project is completed, it would have an installed capacity of 93.2 MW, and would be able to provide 70 per cent of Aberdeen’s domestic electricity demand as the developers, Vattenfall, estimate. This wind farm will also account for a reduction of 134,000 tonne of CO2 emissions as compared to those of a fossil fuel-based generating plant.
Wind energy, and particularly offshore wind, provides growing promise across the globe. Taking into account onshore wind potential, this form of energy supply will make a huge difference in the future. If we look at the state of Texas in the US, the very emblem of fossil fuel-based energy supply wind energy, now accounts for one-fourth of the US wind-powered electricity generation, and once the data for 2017 is available, it is likely to exceed this figure in 2017.
More than 5,000 MW of additional wind generation capacity are under construction, and at the end of 2016, Texas already had 21,450 megawatts of wind capacity installed. This is the result of major improvements in wind energy generation technologies which have resulted in reduced costs per unit of capacity installed and higher efficiency of machines, which are able to convert a higher share of wind which falls on turbine blades into electricity.
Globally, wind power capacity and generation have grown substantially over the years. According to REN21, the global renewable energy policy multi-stakeholder network, the installed wind power capacity in 2006 was only 74,000 MW or 74 Gigawatts (GW). By the end of 2016 this had grown to 487 GW, with additions of 55 GW in that year alone. By the end of 2016, 90 countries accounted for commercial wind energy activities, and 29 countries had over one GW in operation. At the end of that year, China had a capacity of 23.6 GW installed, and was by far the leader in this field. India had an installed capacity of 3.6 GW in the fourth position, with the US and Germany in the second and third positions respectively.
Wind power can be generated from onshore as well as offshore sites. As far as the latter option is concerned, offshore wind capacity is still much lower than in onshore locations, and stood at the
global aggregate of 14.4 GW at the end of 2016. India has a coastline of over 7,500 kms, and several locations offshore would provide viable sites for installation of wind power systems. Yet, thus far, offshore wind capacity has hardly taken off in this country. Overall, wind power accounts for nearly 9.87 per cent of India’s total installed power generation capacity and in the fiscal year 2016-17 wind power installations generated 46,011 million kWh, which is nearly three per cent of total electricity generation. Denmark generates the largest share of power from wind at a level approaching 40 per cent of the total, followed by Ireland with close to 30 per cent.
In terms of manufacture of wind energy equipment also, India has a great deal of catching up to do. Among the top 10 wind turbine manufacturers, the highest share is accounted for by Vestas of Denmark at 16 per cent of the world total, followed by GE of the US at 12 per cent and Goldwind of China also at 12 per cent. If we are to implement the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ programme then it is in “sunshine” industries, like production of wind turbines, that India should excel. This is a field where the market will expand rapidly, and India should be at the table with the biggest manufacturers in the world.
Manufacture within India will also help serve the growing market for new capacity to be created for wind energy supply in the country. The Government of India changed its policy recently to move away from feed-in-tariffs to inviting bids and awarding renewable energy supply projects to enterprises which provide the most favourable terms.
In bids that the Solar Energy Corporation of India invited recently, all the bidders came up with offers of Rs 2.44 to Rs 2.45 per Kwh, which is equivalent to US 3.8 cents per Kwh. Bids were invited for setting up a capacity of two gigawatts, but prospective developers aggregated a total 2.75 GW in the offers that they submitted.
This experience provides an indication of what lies ahead and the bright prospects for wind energy in India with expectations of further cost reductions through improvements in technology and economies of scale. The auction route was opened by the Government of India in February 2017, and this last round is the fifth wind energy auction carried out.
Significantly, cost reduction in the lowest tariff on offer between the first auction and the fifth is almost 30 per cent. This clearly highlights the attraction of moving away from fossil fuels in power generation projects and pursuing aggressively the implementation of renewable energy supply options.
The lowest solar power bid on record is at a level of Rs 2.43 per Kwh, which is in line with the cost of wind generated power. However, there is need for a comprehensive strategy which takes into account incentives for and facilitation of manufacture of wind turbines on a large scale in India and seeing this as a product for export in a globally expanding market.
(The writer is former chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2002-15)
