tapping the potential of
wind power is no longer difficult or expensive. Technology is improving, and it is locally available, cheap to produce and does not dirty the
environment. Within the developing world, the largest wind industry is in India. India is a “Wind Superpower”, both in terms of potential and rate of installation.
India is blessed with an extensive coast and several windy regions along the coast. India’s wind power
generation potential is considerable. The most prominent feature of the wind climatology in India is the monsoon circulation. During the period March to August, the winds are uniformly strong over the whole of the Indian coast. Thus, there is no dearth of windy sites in India.
The wind
energy sector in India is facing many problems. There are complaints of wind energy not yielding proper returns to investors,
grid failure and transmission losses, and inappropriate sites and machinery. Policy formation and management also leaves much to be desired.
Commercial projects account for more than 90 per
cent of the supply. But many wind farms are lying idle, because there is no incentive to sell power. Private producers can only sell power to the grid, which is not commercially viable.
The state
electricity board should purchase electricity generated by wind farms at the same rate as charged by them from the consumers. There are also problems related to loss of power during transmission and distribution. As the number of transformers is inadequate, heavy load leads to grid failure.
Electricity is required by generators to charge their coils before starting power generation. This power requirement should not be more than 30 per cent of the wind energy generated. But during low wind speeds, there are frequent start-stop operations, and it goes up to 60-70 per cent. In many places, attention was not given to selection of the location for optimum generation of electricity.
On the positive side, the wind technology is of international standards, as the wind technology has been developed in collaboration with Danish, German and Dutch firms that are the world leaders in wind technology.
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