First Indian offshore wind tender ‘likely by 2019’

Recharge news

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) thinks India is likely to carry out its first offshore wind tenders before the term of the current government runs out in 2019, but remains cautious about the country's offshore potential.

"The size of that auction, we're still not sure what that will be like," GWEC's director of policy and global projects, Shruti Shukla, told Recharge during a panel on business in non-European markets at EWEA 2015."We're trying our best to temper down the desire for a quick result in the offshore sector."

GWEC is leading the EU-funded Facilitating Offshore Wind in India (FOWIND) consortium that is assessing India's offshore wind resources, focusing on the Western Indian states of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

FOWIND is studying the grid, port and supply chain infrastructure for offshore in the sub-continent and is undertaking Lidar-based assessment. It has identified eight zones off those states that are currently under review by the government of India.

GWEC secretary general Steve Sawyer warned India not to repeat mistakes made by Europe and China, which led by overly-enthusiastic volume projections faced escalating costs, equipment failures, and a slow-down of offshore development before momentum returned amid efforts to bring costs down.

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