Indian committee identifies offshore wind locations - report

Dec 10, 2012 - An expert committee has identified locations for setting up wind farms in shallow waters off the Indian coast, Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy, told the upper house of India's parliament today, The Economic Times reported.

Wind farms could be developed at Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari, both in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, in the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, as well as at the Kerala-Konkan area, according to the committee.

Abdullah said that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had set up an Offshore Wind Energy Steering Committee, which had established a sub-committee tasked with proposing draft policy guidelines for wind energy development. The sub-committee, which presented its report to the ministry in September, has identified the above locations and also proposed the creation of a National Offshore Wind Authority for granting licences for wind farms.

Abdullah said that while there was large potential, offshore wind energy was expensive and that power transmission was also an issue as developers were unwilling to build lines to connect the offshore wind installations to the mainland.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!