Tamil Nadu has a long way to go in tapping offshore wind energy

31 GW offshore wind power potential exists off the coast in the State 

While the Central and Tamil Nadu governments have, in recent weeks, initiated measures to tap into offshore wind energy, the State may still have a long way to go in achieving success.

Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji had earlier this week visited offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom along with a delegation of State government officials. He visited offshore wind farms located in Grimsby, North Sea, “with a view to setting up wind farms at sea and increasing power generation in Tamil Nadu”.

In a related development, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) had recently announced that through its implementing agency, it will issue a tender for leasing out offshore wind energy blocks. equivalent to 4.0 GW capacity, off the coast of Tamil Nadu in the next three-four months.

According to information provided by the Ministry in the Lok Sabha, 31-GW offshore wind power potential exists off the coast of Tamil Nadu. Based on the preliminary studies carried out by the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) in collaboration with multilateral agencies, the government has identified eight zones each off the coast of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu as potential offshore wind energy zones, it added.

Tapping into the offshore wind energy potential has been talked about for many years now, but the progress has been slow. Experts pointed out that even though an announcement for tender has been made, there are many bottlenecks to be overcome for Tamil Nadu as well.

Kashish Shah, research analyst, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said offshore wind is a great clean energy source “as it delivers utilisation rates higher than 50% compared with onshore wind with 30%-35% and solar with 20%-22%.” Offshore wind could be a valuable source to replace the end-of-life coal power plants as the country looks to decarbonise its power sector by retiring coal-fired power plants.

Also, depending on the daily generation profile, essentially depending on the time when wind is blowing, it could complement solar generation. This could provide round-the-clock clean power, he added.