JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #116 - October 2017 - 40

WIND ENERGY
focus

lnside lndia's wind turbine industry
A new wind is blowing on India's renewable energy development policy. The dynamic is particularly beneficial to wind power. In this fast-growing market, composite
materials play an important and indispensable role, and opportunities abound.

ndia's wind-energy industry turned 30 in
2016, a year when the country recorded
its highest ever annual installation of
capacity, at 3.6 GW. Since 2000, India has
steadily increased its installed wind-energy
capacity, and from March 2016 to April
2017, broke all previous records by installing 5.4 GW. By the end of 2016, India took
4th place worldwide in both cumulative
and new installed capacity.

Annual installed capacity: India

Since 2000; India has reduced the number
of people without electricity by half and
doubled rural electrification. While this is
a big achievement, 240 million Indians, or
20% of its population, still lack access to
electricity. Thus, the potential market is huge.
India possesses all three ingredients required

Annual installed capacity: India, China, USA

to accelerate wind turbine installations:
domestic need, political will, and resource
availability.
On the other hand, India intends to comply
with its climate-change commitments under
the Paris agreement (COP21). To honour
that, it needs to be able to generate 60 GW
of wind power by 2022, or almost double the
current 32 GW. To fulfil this demand, at least
5 GW will have to be installed each year over
the next five years. This means installing 38%
more than it did in 2016 - a tough target for
the government, but a great opportunity for
manufacturers.
Resources in wind power
According to Dr. Jami Hossain of TERI
University, India has a wind farm potential
of 2000 GW. This estimate was subsequently
re-validated by Lawrence Berkley National
Laboratory. With 7600 km of coastline,
India has begun to assess the potential in
offshore installations. The National Institute
for Wind Energy (NIWE, earlier C-WET)
and the Indian National Centre for Ocean
Information Services (INCOIS) are carrying
out studies at 54 locations along the coastline.
Financing and tarif
When India's renewable energy sector was
established, the government set up the
Indian Renewable Energy Development
Agency Ltd. (IREDA). As Mr. Debashish
Majumdar (Ex-CMD, IREDA) states,
"No banker finances an unknown animal.
15-20 years ago no bank would touch a
wind project". So at the time, a specialized
agency (IREDA) was tasked to evaluate and
mitigate the risk in initial projects, and to
make finances available. At present, however,
government support to finance wind energy
is limited, mostly through taxation benefits

jec composites magazine / N°116 October 2017

by accelerated depreciation (AD) and
generation-based incentive (GBI), which has
attracted many private investors. As a result,
India's wind sector is 90% sponsored by the
private sector.
The tariff for wind projects is decided by the
State Electricity Regulation Commission,
although the Central Electricity Regulation
Commission does provide tariff guidelines
each year, based on wind power density in
five zones.
Tariff for FY 2016-17 (Source: GWEC) CUF:
Capicity Utilization Factor. All values in INR/kWh

Wind
Energy

Levelized Benefit Net Levelized
Total tariff of AD
tarif

Zone-1 (CUF 20%)

6.61

0.70

5.90

Zone-2 (CUF 22%)

6.01

0.64

5.37

Zone-3 (CUF 25%)

5.29

0.56

4.72

Zone-4 (CUF 30%)

4.40

0.47

3.94

Zone-5 (CUF 32%)

4.13

0.44

3.69

In November 2016, the Ministry of Non
Renewable Energy (MNRE) issued guidelines for a transparent bidding process for
1000 MW. The winning bid results were
announced in March 2017, pronouncing
a wind power tariff at a record low of
3.46/ kWh (US$ 0.052/€ 0.049).
Manufacturing:
innovation, practices & challenges
In terms of cumulative installed capacity, the
key players are Suzlon (35.4%), WindWorld
(18%), Gamesha (10.1%), Vestas (7.6%),
Regen (7.3%) and Inox (5.7%). Other
players like Senvion, Acciona, Envision and
SanyGlobal are also taking an interest in
the Indian wind turbine industry, and the
arrival of some global players to the industry
is reshaping the dynamics and technology.
According to Mr. Ramesh Kymal, the

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #116 - October 2017