High cost, challenges: Why offshore wind energy potential remains untapped

High initial costs, and a lack of government financial support means progress has been slow

Three-and-a-half years since the government asked companies to come forward to set up India's first offshore wind energy project, in the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat, the project is yet to take off. In offshore plants, wind turbines are installed in the sea as opposed to onshore projects with turbines on land. The Gujarat project would have a capacity of 1 gigawatt. 

By 2022, India plans to produce 5 GW electricity--for comparison, at its peak, Delhi's electricity demand was about 3.3 GW on November 14--from such offshore wind energy projects, and expand it to 30 GW by 2030. But a