National Offshore Wind Power Policy 2015

The offshore wind farming is of two types viz. shallow water and deep sea farming. Most progress around the world has been done in case of shallow water wind farms only.  The offshore wind faming is attractive because of several reasons such as stronger winds for efficient generation of power; no impact on real estate value of land as in case of onshore wind farming; its ability to fulfil the demand of the heavily populated coastal regions and no significant environment costs.

The key challenges to offshore wind farming include heavier investments, better technology, maintenance issues etc. Further deep sea wind farms come with the challenges of assigning no-go areas for commercial shipping. There would be a need to devise new lanes, proper lightning for ships to pass on.

National Offshore Wind Power Policy

India is making significant progress in the development of the onshore wind power plants. However, so far progress in the offshore wind power generation has been almost nil. A 100MW offshore wind power plant was started in Gujarat for demonstration purpose only. Since India has more than 7600 Kilometres of coast, the prospects of development of offshore wind power are very bright.

In September 2015, the Union Cabinet has approved the National Offshore Wind Energy Policy. With this, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been authorized as the Nodal Ministry for use of offshore areas within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the country and the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) has been authorized as the Nodal Agency for development of offshore wind energy. Government has paved way for development of the offshore wind farms up to the seaward distance of 200 Nautical Miles (within its Exclusive Economic Zone) from the base line.

With the introduction of the National Offshore Wind Energy Policy, India would try to replicate the success of the onshore wind power development in the offshore wind power development.