"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."Why progress in offshore wind farming is important? Discuss citing key challenges and the recently launched National Offshore Wind Power Policy.

Wind power is regarded as cost-effective renewable energy source for meeting increasing electricity demands. Though, offshore wind farm has higher potential for power generation compared to onshore;, India has onshore winds warms and no offshore farms. The reason lies in unavailability of cost effective technology because of heavier investment in offshore. Since India has a coastline of 7600 km and high offshore potential, NDA government in September 2015, came with National offshore wind power policy which aims at installation of wind farms up to 200 nautical miles of Indian coastal region from base line and generating the power potential of country.

Topics: GS-III: Infrastructure Energy Sector