Wind power development in India has been rather rapid at selected sites. One such site is Muppandal in Tamil Nadu, which has an installed capacity of 400 mw. Spread across 7 villages and 100 companies, Muppandal today has the highest concentration of wind farms in Asia and the third highest in the world.

With 725 mw of total installed capacity in the state, Tamil Nadu ranks first among the states in the number of wind energy generators (WEGs) installed, and power produced. As elsewhere, here too more than 90 per cent of the investment in wind power comes from the private sector. According to E V K Sampath Maaligai, chairperson and managing director of Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (teda), Chennai, "With 2,569 WEGs, private wind farms in Tamil Nadu have generated and fed around 699.52 mw of electricity to the grid.'

But in the last two years there has been a slump in the setting up of additional windmills . The slump is also because wind farms in Tamil Nadu are not economically viable. "This is because even the best sites in Tamil Nadu have low-tech wind turbines. Now, we are trying to upgrade the technology for generating more power,' says Dilip Nagam, principal scientific officer (wind), ministry of non-conventional energy sources.