Wind Mills

India, with the installed Wind Turbine Generation Capacity of 11,806 MW as of October, 2009, ranked fifth in the world after USA, Germany, Spain and China. It is mainly spread across Tamil Nadu (4900.765MW), Maharashtra (1945.25 MW), Gujarat (1580.61 MW), Karnataka (1350.23 MW), Rajasthan (745.5 MW), Madhya Pradesh (212.8 MW), Andhra Pradesh (132.45 MW), Kerala (46.5 MW), Orissa (2MW), West Bengal (1.1 MW) and other states (3.20 MW). It is estimated that 6,000 MW of additional wind power capacity will be installed in India by 2012. Wind power accounts for 6% of India’s total installed power capacity, and it generates 1.6% of the country’s power. The development of wind power in India began in the late 1980s by initiating a programme to map the wind potential and establishing demonstration projects.

While mapping the potential, it was revealed that the wind regime in India is influenced to a large extent by the strong south-westerly monsoon, starting in May-June and by the weaker North-eastern monsoons in the winter months. It has been generally observed that 60%-70% of the total wind power generation in the country takes place during April-September when the South-west monsoon is active throughout the country. So far, 216 potential sites with wind power density >200 W/m2 at 50m above the ground level have been identified in 21 states and union territories across the country, although most of the sites are in the southern and western states. Based on wind velocity data collected at the macro level from nine states and wind potential density >200 W/m2 at 50 m, the gross wind potential has been estimated at 48,500 MW (assuming that only 1% of the potential land is available for the purpose and that 12 hectares of land is required per megawatt).

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