16 Sep 2021
During his address to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in June 2021, the state governor said that old and inefficient wind mills, or wind turbines, would be re-energised. In industry parlance, this is called repowering, where old turbines are replaced with new ones that can produce more energy. India's alternative energy programme to produce electricity from wind started in earnest in the late 1990s, although the pilot project was started in Tamil Nadu in 1986, industry hands told us. Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, with high wind power densities essential for wind power generation, are best suited to harness wind power. Tamil Nadu had the highest installed wind power generating capacity, with 9.6 gigawatt (GW) as of March 31, 2021, per Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) data. Gujarat stood second, with 8.56 GW capacity. As the states that took to wind energy generation first, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have the oldest wind turbines, many of which are located at the best sites for harnessing wind energy. For better utilisation of wind resources and increased safety, these old wind turbines need to be repowered. India's current installed wind power generating capacity is 39.2 GW; the country is targeting installation of 60 GW by 2022. The average annual capacity addition over the last five years, however, has been only 2.48 GW. Attaining the target will need new capacity addition, as also repowering on a large scale.
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