Greentech Lead India: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will constitute a National Offshore Wind Energy Authority (NOWA) that will act as the nodal agency for offshore wind projects in the country.
NOWA will carry out resource assessment and surveys in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of the country and simultaneously enter into contract with project developers for development of offshore wind energy project in the territorial water (12 nm).
NOWA will be the single window agency and will coordinate with concerned Ministries/Departments for necessary clearances. However, NOWA will only act as a facilitator for getting clearance and application for clearance will be dealt in entirety by the concerned Ministry/Department.
A study by Scottish Development International done in January 2012 has indicated potential to establish around one GW capacity wind farm each along the coastline of Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
India is estimated to have 350 GW of offshore wind energy capacity. This was stated by Shri Alok Srivastava, Joint Secretary, MNRE. Shri Srivastava added that Europe (4995 MW) is the global leader in terms of offshore wind energy installation followed by China (390 MW) and Japan (25 MW).
Ratan P. Watal, secretary, MNRE, said India’s onshore wind energy deployment has crossed 19600 MW attracting USD 16.5 billion of investment in 2012 and it is estimated that by 2030 installed capacity could reach 191 GW.
In order to facilitate the flow of renewable energy into the national grid, the Government plans to roll out a Rs 43,000-crore ‘green energy corridor’ project. The project will be implemented with the assistance of Germany which has promised to provide developmental and technical assistance of one billion euro as soft credit, he added.
Since cost of power generated from offshore wind energy is more than that generated from onshore, policy frame work to be formulated should address this differential in account. The Planning Commission will ensure highest priority to the renewable energy sector in the country so that it moves forward to achieve energy security in the country.
The Ministries/Departments which will be involved in the process of granting clearances for Offshore Wind Farm Projects are Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Coast Guard etc.