India's off shore wind energy potential being explored

Studies reveal that wind power density in the Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari regions is in the range of 300-370 watt per square meter, and at a 50 meter hub height.

This means that there is massive potential in the region, and it has been suggested that an off-shore wind farm with a massive capacity of 1 GW can be set up in these regions.

In addition to the studies of India's Centre for Wind Energy Technology, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy  has decided to carry out a feasibility study on off-shore wind energy in India in collaboration with the government of Scotland. The proposed exercise would be carried out under the Indo-Scottish cooperation in renewable energy.

Indian organizations such as ONGC are also making efforts to explore the possibility of off-shore wind power development. In a meeting held last year, ONGC officials had identified two possible locations for setting up wind mills--one at Bombay High Soutj, and the other at Tapti Basin. Both of these are unmanned and abandoned oil platforms. C-WET is providing assistance to ONGC for wind resource assessment at these sites.

Even though on-shore wind energy programs have been doing reasonably well, off-shore projects are yet to take off. Globally, the share of offshore wind is still small and by 2011, only around 4 GW worth of systems were set up, with most of this capacity in Europe, China with 0.1 GW and Japan with 0.02 GW. It is therefore hardly surprising that the off-shore market in India has still not taken off.