India to Release Offshore Wind Development Plan in Late April

The government of India plans to release an offshore wind development plan for the country in late April 2018, participants at a recently held stakeholder consultation event have heard.

Members of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission, India’s National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) met with a number of European and Indian industry representatives on 9 March to discuss key points for the preparation of the development plan.

During the event, NIWE announced that it was already working on a “one-stop shop” for the project permitting, which is aimed at reducing the interaction of developers with numerous Indian authorities.

NIWE has also announced that, in order to reduce the risk for developers, additional offshore geotechnical and wind measurement campaigns at identified project development areas will be initiated.

“Offshore wind energy costs are declining and with the right framework, project pipeline and technology, offshore wind can positively contribute for India’s ambitious renewable energy targets, COWI’s Per Vølund, head of the First Offshore Windfarm Project of India (FOWPI), said in his presentation.

The FOWPI project, funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by COWI, has been preparing technical documentation for a tender call since 2016. The technical document package of the tender call is expected to be ready before the end of 2018, Vølund said.

COWI has already reported metocean, foundation design, electrical and wind studies for a 200MW offshore wind farm in Gujarat. Other studies to be published in the coming months include financial, geophysical and coastal studies.