Facilitating India’s transition towards low carbon development by supporting implementation of national policies and programmes for offshore wind power
NEW DELHI, 17 February 2015– The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) announced today the launch of the Offshore Wind Policy and Market Assessment Outlook. This report is a crucial link to facilitating the development of a roadmap for offshore wind power in India.
The report was developed as a part of the FOWIND (Facilitating Offshore Wind in India) project launched by the GWEC led consortium in December 2013. The report reviews the experiences to date in major offshore wind markets (Belgium, China, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom) as well as puts the offshore wind sector in a larger context of the industry as a whole. Although the technical, economic and actual ground conditions for offshore wind will be unique to each country, this FOWIND report seeks to draw out relevant policy and regulatory lessons for India.
India has a strong record in onshore wind. In 2014, it was the 5th largest market globally with a total installed capacity of 22,465 MW. There is a strong need for large-scale, clean and indigenous energy generation in a rapidly developing economy like India. Offshore Wind may now have a role to play. It generally has some inherent advantages such as a large wind resource, higher wind speeds than onshore wind and more clarity over land tenure. Globally, offshore wind has come of age. At the end of 2014 global offshore wind installations reached 8,771 MW. By 2020, this capacity could reach 29,000 MW (IEA, 2014).
“The Indian environment presents both unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to offshore wind. This report is one step on the long road to building a robust, sustainable and cost-effective offshore wind industry in India” said Steve Sawyer, GWEC Secretary General.
“The Offshore Development in India presents both an incredible new market for the local and international industry, as well as an additional green energy source feeding the ever growing energy demand in India. It also shows good governance by turning the ‘Challenge’ (of required additional generation) in to a ‘Chance’; by investing into renewable energy and thus investing into sustainability” said Mathias Steck, Regional Manager Asia Pacific, Energy & Renewables Advisory, DNV GL – Energy.
Globally, onshore wind is now a mature, competitive and mainstream energy generation source; offshore wind is still in an early stage of rapid expansion and rapid technological development. Most of the over 8.7 GW of capacity installed is in the North Sea, Baltic and Irish Seas. The only other substantial market is in China, although there are exciting developments in Japan, Korea, Taiwan as well as early movement in the United States. As with all new technologies, the capital costs are high, and there is still a great deal of technical and management learning required to bring costs down to competitive levels. One of the goals of the project will be to learn as much as possible from the European experience to ensure that when India ventures offshore it does so in the most effective way possible.
The specific objectives of the project are to create an enabling environment for offshore wind through resource mapping and validation, policy guidance and capacity building measures, and to assess the infrastructure base and identify improvements required. In addition, the project will seek to build partnerships at a technical, policy and research level both within India and between India and EU companies, research groups and institutions, with a final goal of developing an Offshore Wind Outlook and development pathway for India up to 2032.
For more information, please contact:
- Malathy Swaminathan, FOWIND Secretariat [email protected]
- Lauha Fried, Communications Director, GWEC [email protected]
- Sinead Murray, Regional Communications Manager, APAC, DNV GL – Energy [email protected]
