Subject:- Renewable Energy Sources

Topic:- Wind Energy

Difficulty:- Medium

• Carbon di-oxide ($CO_2$) being the main culprit for global climate changes the world is focussing on development and installation of wind energy farms. It is estimated that global wind power capacity is 74 GW and India has 2000MW out of the gross capacity of 45000MW.
• A ministry of non-convential energy resources (MNES) was established in India which monitors the development of wind power and other renewable sources of energy. Due to the efforts of government of India today we rank fourth in the would with regard to the total wind power installation after Germany, Denmark and USA.
• The wind power generation India was started in 1994-95 with installed capacity of 230MW. The installed wind power generator capacity upto September 2006 was 6018MW out of which 1080MW was installed in the year 2006 itself.
• MNES is providing lot of incentives for development of wind farms. Today there are about 30 companies which are involved in wind energy sector in India which are engaged in manufacture of wind turbines and components.
• Some of the important company which are connected with wind energy are Suzlon, Rasharon energy and with Auto ltd, Energy systems Pvt. Ltd. NEG Mican etc.
• The capital cost of wind power generation at present is about Rs. 4 crores /MW with generation cost of Rs. 2.25 – Rs. 2.5 per kwh. The wind power generation in India has a bright future since generation rate is increasing almost at 25% to 30% in the last decade.