Following recent news that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of India (MNRE) and Denmark’s Ministry for Energy, Utilities, and Climate have signed a co-operation agreement in the field of renewable energy with a special focus on offshore wind, Ankit Mathur, Practice Head of Power at GlobalData, offers some valuable insights.

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“As a pioneer in wind energy, Denmark currently sources more than 51 per cent of its total electricity generation from wind,” advised Mr Mathur. “The agreement includes building technical capacity to manage offshore wind projects, and measures to develop a sustained and highly efficient wind industry, both onshore and offshore, in India. The measures will ensure processes that will improve the quality of wind turbines and components; certification requirements; forecasting and scheduling of offshore wind projects.

 

“The union cabinet of India also talked about setting-up of an Indo-Danish Centre of Excellence for renewable energy in India as part of the co-operation agreement,” he continued, adding that besides working on renewable energy resource assessment, the Centre of Excellence would also focus on hybridisation of wind, solar, hydro and storage technologies, testing and R&D, and skill development.

 

Ambitious target: 5GW by 2022

 

“India has set a very ambitious target of having 5GW of operating offshore wind capacity by 2022, and as much as 30GW by 2030. An expression of interest was issued in April 2018 for the country’s inaugural offshore wind park near Gujarat, which attracted 35 responses from both domestic and international companies and consortia.

 

“Until last year, there has been muted activity, and the progress towards developing the Indian offshore wind industry was dismal. However, the Indian government has finally set the ball rolling and has gathered the required steam to drive the development momentum,” Mr Mathur remarked in closing. “MNRE has planned to launch the first ever 1GW offshore wind tender for Gujarat later this year, which, if fruitful, could fuel India’s ambitious target of successfully foraying into offshore wind.”