NTPC, ONGC plan mega offshore wind project investments

Union energy minister RK Singh not too long ago stated the ministry of latest and renewable vitality is contemplating providing viability hole funding choices for offshore wind vitality initiatives.

State-run NTPC will collectively develop offshore wind energy vegetation with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and the potential capability of those initiatives can run as much as “tens of hundreds of mega-watts (MW)”, a senior official of the facility generator stated. The funding required for 1 MW of wind energy is round Rs 5 crore.

Offshore wind energy initiatives are capital-intensive in comparison with typical wind vegetation as builders have to put in giant wind energy generators in open seas and construct transmission infrastructure to on-shore substations. Union energy minister RK Singh not too long ago stated the ministry of latest and renewable vitality is contemplating providing viability hole funding choices for offshore wind vitality initiatives.

In Might 2020, NTPC and ONGC had signed a memorandum of understanding to arrange a three way partnership firm for renewable vitality enterprise. NTPC has doubled its renewable vitality goal to 60,000 MW by the tip of 2032. Presently, its put in renewable vitality capability is 1,365 MW and by FY24, it intends so as to add one other 13,000 MW of inexperienced energy era base.

An offshore wind coverage was introduced in 2015, and the primary offshore gentle detection and ranging (LiDAR) was put in within the gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat for measurement of wind sources. The Nationwide Institute of Wind Vitality is gathering wind pace knowledge November 2017 onwards. Preliminary assessments alongside the 7,600-km-long Indian shoreline have indicated prospects for growth of offshore wind energy.

The federal government has set a goal of 30,000 MW of offshore wind capability by 2030. In April 2018, the federal government had invited expressions of curiosity for the event of the nation’s maiden business offshore wind farm, and had proposed a 400 sq km space to arrange 1,000 MW of wind capability close to the Pipavav port within the gulf of Khambhat.

Out of the 450 GW of the nation’s renewable vitality goal for 2030, round 140 GW is predicted to return from wind vegetation, and offshore initiatives can comprise a good portion of this portfolio as they don’t have land acquisition-related challenges.