2011 International Conference on Alternative Energy in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies
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a huge amount of unexploited wind resource that can
help immensely in the future years to come.
The wind power capacity in India is the maximum in
Tamil Nadu. As of March 2010, the state has 4889.765
MW of wind generating capacity. Kethanoor,
Gudimangalam,
Chittipalayam,
Poolavadi,
Sunkaramudaku, Kongal Nagaram, Murungappatti,
Gomangalam, Anthiur are the places in Tamil Nadu
with the maximum wind generating capacity. Next to
Tamil Nadu is Maharashtra, which is the 2nd state in
India
to
generate
wind
power
energy.
The Government of Gujarat also banks largely on the
wind resources. The state has identified Samana in the
Rajkot District as the perfect place for installing 450
turbines, which would generate 360 MW of energy. In
order to facilitate the development of wind energy in
the state through investments, the Gujarat Government
has come up with several incentives, which includes
high
tariff
for
wind
energy.
The state of Karnataka is also not lagging behind.
There are several wind farms in the state. Chitradurga
and Gadag are among the districts with the maximum
number of windmills.
Although India has a high wind power installed
capacity, yet the country lacks proper utilization of the
wind resources. As per one of the studies made by the
"Global World Energy Council" India has the
capability to construct wind power stations and plants
that can generate about 5 times more in comparison to
the estimations made by the Government, by the year
2030. According to the estimations of Indian Wind
Turbine Manufacturers Association, against the
government's calculation 48,000 MW from 216 sites,
the wind power capacity of India can go up by 231,000
MW. The Government of India has plans to put in
10,500 MW of wind power capacity in the next 5 five
years,
that
is
by
2012.
State Wind Potential (
23 September 2010
)
State
Wind Potential (Gross)
Andhra Pradesh
8275 MW
Gujarat
9675 MW
Karnataka
6620 MW
Maharashtra
3650 MW
Kerala
875 MW
Rajasthan
5400 MW
Madhya Pradesh
5500 MW
Tamil Nadu
3050 MW
West Bengal
450 MW
Orissa
1700 MW
Total
45195 MW
These incentives in the wind and solar energy sector
in addition to policy push in various other sectors such
as small hydro and biomass will help India reach closer
to its target, it now accomplish it. These policy
initiatives will most definitely attract private as well as
international financial aid targeted at promoting clean
energy. India is taking the right steps to kick start a
renewable energy revolution which, if it is able to
sustain would bring it successes limited not only to
environment and energy.
Geothermal energy is the earth’s natural heat
available inside the earth. This thermal energy
contained in the rock and fluid that filled up fractures
and pores in the earth’s crust can profitably be used for
various purposes. Heat from the Earth, or geothermal
— Geo (Earth) + thermal (heat) — energy can be and
is accessed by drilling water or steam wells in a
process similar to drilling for oil. Geothermal energy is
an enormous, underused heat and power resource that
is clean (emits little or no greenhouse gases), reliable
(average system availability of 95%), and homegrown
(making us less dependent on foreign oil).
Geothermal resources range from shallow ground to
hot water and rock several miles below the Earth's
surface, and even farther down to the extremely hot
molten rock called magma. Mile-or-more-deep wells
can be drilled into underground reservoirs to tap steam
and very hot water that can be brought to the surface
for use in a variety of applications.
India has reasonably good potential for geothermal; the
potential geothermal provinces can produce 10,600
MW of power. But yet geothermal power projects has
not been exploited at all, owing to a variety of reasons,
the chief being the availability of plentiful coal at
cheap costs. However, with increasing environmental
problems with coal based projects, India will need to
start depending on clean and eco-friendly energy
sources in future; one of which could be geothermal.
It has been estimated from geological, geochemical,
shallow geophysical and shallow drilling data it is
estimated that India has about 10000 MWe of
geothermal power potential that can be harnessed for
various purposes.
GEOTHERMAL MAP OF INDIA
