Energy resources are generally sparse with many of the countries in the world. Fearing exhaustion of non- renewable energy in the times to come, emphasis is now shifting on enhancing and encashing renewable energy resources. In India, by virtue of its ideal geographical location in the tropics, wind power and solar insolation are two powerful resources available in abundance. However, the availability of both these resources remains intermittent as sunshine is available only during day time and fluctuations in the wind speed is observed as a regular feature anywhere.
Development of wind power in India commenced in 1990. It is a mix of leaps and stagnation in this field since then. However, significant progress has been made in the last few years. India is the fifth largest in the world to have installed wind power capacity of about 20 Gigawatts. The lead remains with China with an overall generating capacity exceeding 75000 m Megawatts.
The top five states having sound potential to generate enough wind power are Tamil Nad , Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan. But the optimal use of this potential is not commensurate with the scale of the resource available. Understandably, there are inherent limitations and constraints to enhance generation of power to somewhat full capacity utilization. In that, an accurate estimation of power generation itself is a problem. This is largely on account of large variability of the wind field and also possibly non-adherence to the strict maintenance schedule of the wind mills.
Government of India has an ambitious target of generating 300 Gigawatts of wind energy in the near future. And to achieve this, the government is going to launch its first National Wind Energy Mission (NWEM) by mid 2014 to give a boost to this renewable source. NWEM will act as a facilitator interms of extending incentive to the investors and help in expediting procedural clearances. The agency will also facilitate partnering with Global Wind Energy Council, which has expressed interest in the off shore wind energy development also, in the two Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Guajrat.
We at `SKYMET` a private weather company, are rigorously pursuing the field of Wind Energy, presently in Research and Development mode. SKYMET is using Global, Meso and Micro Scale numerical models for characterizing the dynamical nature of the wind. The scientists here are using wind and power real time data to continuously improve upon the forecasting techniques. Alongside, the statistical correction methods are implied to improve the wind speed forecasting.
