Potential of Wind Energy
The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) has recently launched Wind Energy Resource Map of India at 100 meter above ground level (AGL) on online Geographic Information System platform. This Wind Atlas is available online in the NIWE website www.niwe.res.in. The wind energy potential in the country at 100 m AGL is over 302 GW. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy (IC) in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today
The State-wise wind energy potential is given below:
| S.No | State/UT | Potential (MW@100m) |
| 1 | Andaman & Nicobar | 8 |
| 2 | Andhra Pradesh | 44229 |
| 3 | Chhattisgarh | 77 |
| 4 | Goa | 1 |
| 5 | Gujarat | 84431 |
| 6 | Karnataka | 55857 |
| 7 | Kerala | 1700 |
| 8 | Lakshadweep | 8 |
| 9 | Madhya Pradesh | 10484 |
| 10 | Maharashtra | 45394 |
| 11 | Odisha | 3093 |
| 12 | Puducherry | 153 |
| 13 | Rajasthan | 18770 |
| 14 | Tamil Nadu | 33800 |
| 15 | Telangana | 4244 |
| 16 | West Bengal | 2 |
| Total | 302,251 MW (302 GW) | |
The Minister further stated that depending upon the location of the project in different wind power potential zones in the country, the plant load factor of wind energy projects ranges from 20 per cent to 32 per cent. The wind power is being installed in the country under three different modes, viz. i) Sale to Discoms under Feed-in-Tariff mode; ii) Captive use; and iii) Third party sale under Independent Power Producer (IPP) mode. The Government is promoting all three modes of installation, the Minister added.
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission on 7 August 2015 has notified forecasting and scheduling regulations and also Deviation Settlement Mechanism for inter-state transmission of solar and wind energy. Further, the Forum of Regulators has also issued model regulations on forecasting, scheduling & deviation settlement of wind & solar generators for intra-state transmission, the Minister added.