India aims at a quantum leap in wind power generation: Farooq Abdullah

India will see a quantum leap in wind power production as all favourable conditions for an accelerated growth in terms of potential, technical and support facilities, favourable policy and regulatory environment, robust manufacturing base, and investor confidence are available, minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah told a session on wind energy at Asia Clean Energy Forum in Manila.

Participate in the Asian Clean Energy Forum at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in Manila, the Philippines today, the minister observed that wind has emerged a major source of clean energy with India alone having an estimated potential of about 48,000 MW.

Delivering the keynote address, the minister said the Indian government has taken some new initiatives like generation-based incentives (GBI), expansion of wind resource data base, technical improvements, testing, and enlargement of the user profile, to accelerate the pace of wind power development in the country.

He said the government has monitored around 700 locations for a period of 1-3 years and has identified 233 as wind potential sites. A `Wind Atlas' has also been published recently to help better micro-siting leading to higher generation from wind power projects, he said.

Easy financing is being facilitated through the financing arm of the ministry, `Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA)', the minister added.

Terming renewable energy as a viable option in view of the increasing growth in energy demand, the limitations of supply, the rising cost of fossil fuel based power generation and environmental concerns, he said it has become vital for the sustainable economic development of the entire world, especially the developing countries.