Vikram kapoor
You may have played with paper wheel attached
with a thin wooden stick scrolling speedily with the flow of wind. A kid gets
excited and become energetic when he observes the rotation of the colourful
paper wheel.
As a kid, we may not have realised the
importance of wind in our life but today, the same wind is helping the world to
create electricity in large areas of different countries.
With the similar
concept of this paper toy, engineers have developed advanced and heavy wind
turbines which are placed in the wind farms to create electricity with the help
of big power generators in many states of India.
India started its renewable energy mission in
early 70’s.
Today, it is worlds one of the largest renewable energy
programmers. It can be seen in remote villages, metros and huge
industries.
This will help in operating
small industries and thousands of villages. Indian companies are producing
modern turbines and related components ingeniously therefore India is growing
much faster than the global market which is the result of its high potential
With the tag of a complete developing nation,
today, Indian wind energy already has the 5th largest installed capacity in the
world and is set to grow at a rapid pace driven by investments from the private
wind turbine manufacturers. The total installed power capacity was 19,565 MW on
June 30, 2013.
More than 95 percent of total nation’s wind
energy generates from just five states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Karnataka and Rajasthan. Most of the Installed Wind Capacity in India is
located in the southern and industrial states of the country.
The other states like UP, Bihar lacks
sufficient Wind Energy Capacity despite having high power tariffs and substantial
electricity deficits.
In the current environment
of global concern over climate change, we must look critically at the
operational efficiency of clean energy power plants and increase energy
efficiency which can be achieved through different sources of renewable energy.
With the increasing
population and demand in a country like India, electricity is the basic need
which lacks in most of the rural India and this is also one of the major causes
of lack of economic growth in the country.
According to Centre for Wind
Energy Technology, the wind energy installation in the country in 2011-12 was
3,197 MW which fell to 1,698 MW in 2012-13. The figures slightly picked up to
2,000 MW in 2013-14.
India can get 35% of its
power from renewable energy by 2030. Thought the government has not given much
importance for the growth of wind energy production and its urgent need in the
recent 2014 budget, the government of India decided to add 10,000 MW per year
to lift wind energy sector to reduce
India's dependence on costly energy imports.
As there is good demand wind
turbines installation in India and abroad, like other power gear makers, Indian
wind turbine makers too are facing competition from Chinese counterparts that
also offer cheaper finance to the investors in wind energy
The biggest advantage with
wind energy is that the fuel is free, and also it doesn’t produce CO2 emission.
Wind farm can be built reasonably fast, the wind farm land can be used for
farming as well thus serving dual purpose, and it is cost-effective as compare
to other forms of renewable energy.
One
wind turbine can be sufficient to generate energy for a household. Because wind
is a source of energy which is non-polluting and renewable, wind turbines
create power without using fossil fuels, without producing greenhouse gases or radioactive
or toxic waste which also reduces global warming.
There are some of the issues
which are hurdles in the way of growth of the wind energy and the development
process like Forest land clearance, Creation of infrastructure for power
evacuation and transmission facilities, availability of land for wind farms,
Potential land mostly acquired by manufacturers/ developers, Implementation of
revised tariff as per CERC (Central electricity regulatory commission)
guidelines and Development of scheduling and forecasting system.
Thought wind energy is 100%
clean and green energy, it has some shortcomings too. Noise disturbances,
threat to wildlife(can kill with the turbines) and absence of wind in many
places are the demerits which has to be taken care off before planning of the
setup of the wind turbines and its location so that these problems can be cured
and result in producing safe energy for all.
