The third largest state by area and second largest by population in the country, Maharashtra's wind power potential is 4584 MW. In 2007-08, Maharashtra saw an addition of 268 MW to its wind energy generation capacity. Besides the state stands second to Tamil Nadu in terms of installed capacity to generate wind energy.
India is rapidly developing wind energy resources to satisfy its growing needs for electricity. However, the suitability of a particular location for the development of a wind energy project depends on a large number of factors.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are a type of environmental commodity intended to provide an economic incentive tor electricity generation from renewable energy sources. If renewable energy such as wind or solar power is to be supported for global, environmental or a country's energy security objective, it does not matter where the solar or the wind plant is located.
Rajasthan is one of the states that is bestowed with good wind energy potential in the country. Of the 45,000 MW wind energy potential identified by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) sources, 5,400 MW has been assessed for Rajasthan. An assessment by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai shows that Rajasthan has encouraging wind profile for harnessing wind power.
This article aims to look at the determinative factors and conditions of private participation in the wind sector in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala which will be guided by the following approaches from political sciences and (relational) economic geography.
As India experiences rapid economic development, energy scarcity is becoming a critical barrier to further sustained growth. Costs of conventional power plants are high. Excessive use of fossil fuels and natural sources of conventional power plants will harm the environment and contribute towards climate change.
A robust transmission network is essential for power market operations. Experts have recommended that the market reforms should start with transmission and not generation. Transmission system issues need to be accorded the highest priority in the market development initiative.
Wind resource availability and hence the power generation from wind power projects is variable in nature. Since the share of wind power generation is growing in India, the grid generation issues resulting due to this variable nature of wind power will have to be addressed if the growth is to be sustained.
