India may hit 154 GW of wind capacity by 2030 - study

Oct 21, 2014 - India’s total wind capacity is expected to range from 83.2 GW to 154.2 GW by 2030, according to the New Policies and the Advanced scenarios in the latest Global Wind Energy Outlook.

As early as 2020, the country is seen to have between 47.9 GW and 55.9 GW of operational wind farms, shows the report, published Tuesday by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Greenpeace International.

The 83.2-GW forecast for 2030 under the New Policies scenario takes into consideration current energy and climate policy directions and plans at both national and international level. The Advanced or best-case scenario, on the other hand, shows how much the global wind energy sector could grow under the best circumstances, which for India means nearly 154.2 GW of capacity in 2030.

GWEC and Greenpeace also presented a Moderate scenario in which the situation from the past decade remains more or less unchanged for wind energy as it continues to gain ground but is still struggling against “heavily subsidised incumbents”. India, in particular, is to reach a wind capacity of 49.1 GW in 2020 and bring the total to 125.4 GW in 2030 under that scenario.

The report also indicates that India’s total wind power generation capacity will come near 22.3 GW this year.

When it comes to investments in the sector, the total projected spending under the Moderate scenario would reach EUR 66 billion per year by 2020 and EUR 103 billion by 2030. Based on the Advanced scenario, annual investments would reach EUR 86 billion (USD 84bn) by 2020 and EUR 105 billion by 2030.

According to the Global Wind Energy Outlook, the total wind capacity around the globe could reach 964.5 GW in 2030 under the New Policies scenario. the forecast jumps to 1,934 GW under the Advanced scenario "if a robust climate regime was in place along with political will to tackle the climate challenge across most of the globe".

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.274)

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