Govt mulling National Offshore Wind Energy Agency...

 

To explore the potential of generating power through wind energy, New and Renewable Energy Ministry is making efforts for setting up a National Offshore Wind Energy Agency.

The agency will explore wind generation potential in the offshore areas of the country.

"The potential of generating power through wind energy in the offshore areas is immense and the ministry will approach the Union Cabinet soon for a decision," New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah said.

He was speaking during a day-long "National Level Consultation on National Wind Energy Mission" here.

Abdullah also expressed hope that the Finance Ministry will restore the benefits of accelerated depreciation for wind power producers in the Interim Budget to be presented next month.

The Minister also supported the idea of appropriate financial support to the wind power producers.

The national consultation was organised by the ministry to discuss the need and scope of a National Wind Energy Mission.

The mission works towards improving investment climate by resolving issues connected with resource potential, land availability, grid connectivity, clearance procedure and zoning.

This initiative is part of the efforts of the ministry to remove hurdles in wind power development in the country and bring together all stakeholders on a common platform to work in a coordinated and concerted manner, officials said.

The consultation was attended by industry representatives, state electricity regulators, state and central government officials and research and development experts.

Secretary, MNRE S B Agnihotri also highlighted the importance of setting up an evacuation infrastructure and short-term large scale storage facilities for the renewable energy.

He also stressed on the need for making long term finance available at reasonable rate for the wind power producers.

Source: Business Standard

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C​hemical Industries Association urges Govt to set up offshore wind power projects...

 

The Chemical Industries Association has urged the Government of India to work towards setting up offshore wind power plants in India. Offshore wind farms are those constructed in water bodies to harness wind power.

"India is facing an impending energy crisis due to the necessity to import around 110 million tonnes of coal, around 185 milllion tonnes of crude oil and 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year. Considering that India production of these resources has almost become stagnant, the country's import of these products will almost double in the next 7-8 years. India has to urgently look for appropriate indigenous energy sources and offshore wind power is an appropriate energy source opportunity," the Association has said in an appeal to the Prime Minister and Chief Minister of costal states.

"India has around 7000 kilometers of coastline which provide enormous opportunity for the country to set up several off shore wind power projects. States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat have big opportunities for setting up off shore wind projects," the president of the Association, P K N Panicker said.

"While India has installed capacity of around 18,000MW of on shore wind power, the capacity utilization is only around 40% every year due to lack of wind speed during several months. Even if the country increases onshore wind capacity, this would continue," the appeal said.

Europe is focusing in a big way on offshore wind power projects with capacity of around 6,000 MW built over the last few years. India should immediately seize this offshore wind power opportunity and take steps to build 1 lakh MW of offshore wind projects in the next 15 years, the appeal said.

Source

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MNRE constituted Offshore Wind Energy Steering Committee for developing offshore wind projects…

Power India found that, the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) after waiting for long has finally constituted an Offshore Wind Energy Steering Committee (OWESC) to steer the offshore wind power development in India.

 

We believe that the move was in line with the recommendations from various industry experts such as E&Y etc as captured by Power India.

 

The said committee was set up under the chairmanship of Secretary, MNRE to develop the offshore wind project in India in a direct and focused manner especially in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

 

This committee will work out a roadmap for offshore wind power development in the country. It has been pointed out in various studies carried out by C-WET and others which suggested offshore wind power potential in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

 

A Technical Committee has already been constituted to analyse the available data with various agencies for preliminary assessment of potential including identification of pockets for offshore wind power development.

 

The Offshore Wind Energy Steering Committee will focus on issues like allotment of offshore wind sites which requires multilayer clearances, coordination with various government departments/agencies such as Environment, Shipping, Defence, Maritime and Civil Aviation. The Committee will include various stakeholders including government department/agencies.

 

According to the terms and reference of OWESC, it will provide policy guidance for tapping offshore wind energy potential on sustained basis; approve plans and proposals relating to offshore wind energy development in the country; develop policy framework/guidelines for offshore wind resource assessment through public/private entities and guidelines for awarding the sites to private sector for establishing offshore wind power projects.

 

It would also work to create an institutional mechanism for inter-agency coordination for integration of offshore wind power with established uses of the sea; evaluation of the potential partners (private/public sector) for setting up of pilot offshore wind power projects of 100 m size in a period of 2-3 years and evaluation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for offshore wind energy development.

 

 

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