Despite 1830 Megawatt (MW) of wind power capacity getting added in the first six months of current financial year 2025, leading wind power generating states like Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat have generated less compared to the green energy generated during the same period last year.
Gujarat is the biggest wind energy producer with 15300 MW of installed capacity. However, between April-September 2024, wind generation fell in this western Indian state by almost two percent to 15,332 million units. Another large wind energy producer, Tamil Nadu too saw a similar decline of two percent, producing 13000 million units during the first half of the current financial year.
This decline comes despite both states increasing their wind generation capacities by five percent during April-September 2024. While Gujarat added 592 MW, Tamil Nadu added 525 MW of wind generation capacity.
This fiscal, the biggest decline in wind power generation has been seen in Rajasthan. The state, at 4332 million units, produced 20 percent less wind power compared to the same period last year. Andhra Pradesh which generated 5300 million units too saw a 14 percent decline in wind generation.
- Also read: India well-positioned to navigate US-China tariff conflict: BlackRock
Both Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh did not add any new wind generation capacity during the last six months.
It has been a similar story for states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, where wind generation declined between 7-9 percent.
Over all, the wind power generation in India declined by three percent to 55888 million units, from 57618 million units during April-September 2023. In comparison, the solar energy generation in India rose 18 percent to 67,929 million units during this April-September 2024 period.
Among the large wind energy producing states, Karnataka stood out, increasing its wind generation by 22 percent between April-September 2022.
Wind generation in this southern state rose to 9043 million units from the 7415 million units last year. During this six month period, the installed wind generation capacity in Karnataka also rose by 12 percent to 6724 MW.
Atanu Mukherjee, CEO & President, Dastur Energy says, “Such instances as seen in the first half of this fiscal underscore the critical need for India to approach renewable capacity additions as part of a well-integrated electricity system, rather than simply expanding capacity to capitalize on subsidies. In case of wind, the power generation and transmission faces unique challenges, as demand centers are often far from generation points.”
“That means one needs to have grid connection and transmission infrastructure to transport wind energy. Both connectivity to the grid and transmission capacity has been lacking in these states. Rights of way issues for transmission lines have been a large factor in delaying connectivity. Investment in transmission infrastructure is very capital intensive , and delays and curtailed investments are likely unless there is a clear business case for investing in transmission for hauling renewables from remote locations to demand centers profitably. In the absence of grid connectivity and transmission capacity, investments in wind will fall – as generation of wind power for mostly local/regional consumption will lead to high curtailment and even negative wind electricity prices.”
“Further, land acquisition challenges in terms of clearances, and legal disputes for wind farms has also been a contributing factor, slowing down wind project development. Policy changes from feed-in tariffs to competitive auctions have also dampened investor confidence. These growing uncertainties and hurdles limit the funding appetite for investors in wind , and wind growth has fallen off in these states,” Mukherjee added.
Meanwhile, a leading wind turbine manufacturer who did not wish to be quoted told Business Line, “Unlike in a thermal project, the PLF (Plant Load Factor) for wind power projects is calculated based on the 25-year-long lifecycle of the project.
Therefore anyone who is investing in a wind power project is looking at the returns that he or she will get from the entire project-life of the project and not on a year-on-year basis. Therefore a year-on-year comparison of wind power generation is not right. Secondly, in our experience, wind data measurements have to be studied for an 8-10 year period.”
When asked about the future of wind power in India, Sehul Bhatt, Director- Research at CRISIL Market Intelligence and Analytics said, “India added 3.25 GW of wind power capacity in fiscal 2024 – the highest annual achievement since the competitive bidding regime came in – taking the total installed capacity to ~46 GW. To this, CRISIL MI&A Research estimates an addition of 3.5-4 GW of capacity in fiscal 2025 and a further 23-25 GW over fiscal 2025-29, led by pipeline build-up under existing schemes and new tendering schemes, improvement in technology and wind component additions under mixed-resource models.”
“Historically, the capacity additions have been concentrated in states such as Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. That is expected to continue, along with some additions in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.”
- Also read: Firm stance. RBI holds key rate ‘to bring down inflation in the interest of growth’