The future of Indian wind energy sector remains bright and is expected to easily achieve the installed capacity targets announced by the government by 2022, chairman of one of the leading wind energy companies in India has stated.
Tulsi Tanti, Chairman-Suzlon Group, recently stated that India’s wind energy capacity would nearly double from current 32 gigawatts to 60 gigawatts over the next five years. The Indian government has set a target for 60 gigawatts operational wind energy capacity by March 2022.
A record 5,400 megawatts wind energy capacity was added in India in financial year 2016-17. The capacity addition beat target of 4,000 megawatts by an impressive 35%. India added 3,423 megawatts wind energy capacity in 2015-16 against a target of 2,400 megawatts.
Wind energy capacity addition remained concentrated to a few states and is expected remain so over the next few years as well. The states of Andhra Pradesh (2,190 megawatts), Gujarat (1,275 megawatts) and Karnataka (882 megawatts) dominated the capacity addition. These figures may change as the ministry continues to compile the final capacity addition numbers.
Between April 2016 and February 2017, a total of 2,374 megawatts of wind energy capacity was added. In March 2017 alone the capacity addition jumped to 3,026 megawatts.
For financial year 2017-18, the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers’ Association (IWTMA) has forecasted a capacity addition of 6,000 megawatts, against a target of 4,500 megawatts.
