India’s yearly addition is next only to the US and China
Wind power is matching thermal power worldwide in terms of new capacity additions, thanks to changing priorities in the US and Europe and economic reasons in India and China.
Calendar year 2008 saw an unusually strong showing by Indian wind farms and poor performance in thermal power capacity addition, one US-based renewable power consultant told Business Standard.
India added wind power capacity of 1,800 Mw in 2008, ranked third globally. India was fifth worldwide for cumulative wind capacity after the US, Germany, Spain and China, with a total capacity of 9,645 Mw.
Tamil Nadu has 44 per cent of Indian wind capacity, but other states are catching up and policies are boosting capacity additions. The new trend is offshore wind farms and this will boost the sector further, as much of the Indian coastline is relatively unsuitable for port development and land acquisition for terrestrial wind farms is a problem.
In contrast, thermal power capacity addition has been slow. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) said recently that 12,717 Mw of generation capacity were commissioned between April 2007 and March 2009, against the original target of adding 23,117 Mw in the period. During the financial year ended March 31, 2009, India added 3,454 Mw against its target of 6,782 Mw.
The growing share of wind in new power generation capacity is a global trend. In 2008, for the first time, wind power became Europe’s leading source of new electricity capacity, at 8,877 Mw added, against new natural gas power capacity of 6,839 Mw and coal-fired power units at 763 Mw.
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The global wind power leader was the US, where new wind installations increased by 50 per cent to 8,358 Mw, taking total installed capacity to 25,170 Mw at 2008-end. The US-based consultant said an estimated 4,000 Mw wind capacity was ready for commissioning, held up by the extension of the US federal production tax credit due in 2009.
China ranked second, with about 6,300 Mw installed during 2008, almost as much as its thermal capacity addition, said the consultant. And, China has reacted to the world financial crisis by identifying wind energy development as a key economic growth area.
The consultant quoted global reports and predicted that most new wind capacity would move from onshore to offshore locations, with Europe having shown the way, with nine operational offshore wind farms in end-2008, with 1,486 Mw installed capacity. More than 30,822 Mw of offshore capacity was under construction or planning in Europe, with completion expected by 2015.
China ended 2008 with 12,200 Mw in place against its 2010 wind target of 10,000 Mw, though this led to problems in grid alignments with wind energy installations.
Though 2009 saw financing for new projects and orders for turbines and components slowing significantly, three big offshore projects planned for northern Europe and economic stimulus packages in the US and elsewhere backing wind power and other renewables were expected to re-energise demand by end-2009.
The global market for wind turbine installations in 2008 was worth about $47.5 billion, up approximately 42 per cent over 2007.
Share of wind to increase
By 2008-end, wind power accounted for 8 per cent of EU power capacity, enough to generate 4.2 per cent of EU power demand in a normal wind year. On average, the power delivered by a wind farm was half of installed capacity, owing to changes in wind speed and direction.
The global economic crisis led to cheaper material and construction costs and lower turbine prices, and these would boost installations, said the consultant. Wind power accounted for 42 per cent of 2008’s capacity additions in the US, second only to natural gas for the fourth year running.
The Global Wind Energy Council said it expected 332,000 Mw wind capacity installed by 2013.
The Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association claimed wind capacity would reach 50,000 Mw by 2015.
Global wind capacity rose by an estimated 27,051 Mw in 2008, ending the year at 120,798 Mw, or more than 1.5 per cent of global electricity capacity against 0.1 per cent in 1997.