The Danish Energy Agency and the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy have published a conceptual plan with a pipeline identifying 15 locations for offshore wind in India.
IE published an article titled ‘Namma Mannara Or Biz-Savvy Kutchi?’ on the government’s plan to setup a fleet of offshore wind turbines (wind parks) either in the Gulf of Mannar [Tamil Nadu] or in Gulf of Khambhat [Gujarat].
On 23 November 2022 in Chennai, a high-level event was organised by the Centre of Excellence for Offshore Wind and Renewable Energy, a joint initiative between The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) and The Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy [MNRE]. The Minister of Information Technology of the Government of Tamil Nadu, Mano Thangaraj, gave a keynote address and underlined the strong commitment for renewable energy from the government of Tamil Nadu.
The meeting highlighted the screening processes and conceptual build plans for the selected zones off the coast of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat and is based on Denmark’s approach to maritime spatial planning for offshore wind turbines. The plan also provides substantial inputs to the current stakeholder dialogue on draft tender documents from MNRE.
Centre of Excellence for Offshore Wind and Renewable Energy
India and Denmark have together launched a knowledge hub; The Centre of Excellence for Offshore Wind and Renewable Energy (COE) (https://coe-osw.org/). This is a joint initiative between the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) as the host of the COE and the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) as a supporting organisation. The COE would bring together industry, public authorities and civil society and will play a crucial role in facilitating and accelerating the implementation of the Indian offshore wind strategy.
India’s first offshore wind parks with Danish collaboration
The conceptual build-out plan proposes identification of 14 sites in Tamil Nadu (south east India) and 1 site in Gujarat (west India) corresponding to the planned upcoming auctions announced in the Strategy Paper for Offshore Wind, released by Government of India in July 2022.
Freddy Svane, Ambassador of Denmark to India said: “The Green Strategic Partnership between India and Denmark in creating offshore wind parks will be the next big step in India’s green transition. India and Denmark are leading this green energy transition together.”
Tamil Nadu government’s commitment to renewable energy enabled the state to setup up to 25 GW across the identified areas in the state. This provides a clear pipeline and contribution to the 30 GW government target for offshore wind by 2030.
A dedicated port infrastructure study identifies a set of ports off the Tamil Nadu and Gujarat coasts fulfil basic navigation and access criteria to support installation of wind turbines and foundations. Therefore, a set of development alternatives are proposed for each port. IE constantly pressed for adopting, installing and increasing more wind and solar energies that would power the future of India [IE September 2022, https://industrialeconomist.com/wind-and-solar-powering-future/]
This is a huge milestone for the Tamil Nadu government to submit the Maritime Spatial Planning project and the port infrastructure study that has helped the state to tale a giant leap towards in harnessing non-renewable resources. During May to September, Vaayu Bhagwan (wind god) helps meet almost 30 per cent of the daily power consumption of the state. There is now the golden opportunity for the state to generate power utilising offshore wind parks up to 25 GW by 2030.
