India to Establish National Offshore Wind Energy Authority

A National Offshore Wind Energy Authority (NOWA) under the aegis of Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will be constituted and will act as the nodal agency for Offshore Wind Projects in the country.

NOWA will carry out resource assessment and surveys in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of the country and simultaneously enter into contract with project developers for development of an offshore wind energy project in the territorial waters (12 nm). NOWA will be the single window agency and will coordinate with concerned Ministries/Departments for necessary clearances. However, NOWA will only act as a facilitator for getting clearance and application for clearance will be dealt in entirety by the concerned Ministry/Department. This was stated by Secretary, MNRE, Shri Ratan P. Watal, while speaking at the “National Consultation of Stakeholders regarding Development of Offshore Wind Energy in India”.

Shri Watal further said the Government of India is committed to provide a conducive environment for harnessing offshore wind energy in the country. Laying down figures, he stated that India’s onshore wind energy deployment has crossed 19600 MW attracting USD 16.5 billion of investment in 2012 and it is estimated that by 2030 installed capacity could reach 191 GW. In order to facilitate the flow of renewable energy into the national grid, the Government plans to roll out a Rs 43,000-crore ‘green energy corridor’ project. The project will be implemented with the assistance of Germany which has promised to provide developmental and technical assistance of one billion euro as soft credit, he added.

A study by Scottish Development International done in January 2012 has indicated potential to establish around one GW capacity wind farm each along the coastline of Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. India is estimated to have 350 GW of offshore wind energy capacity. This was stated by Shri Alok Srivastava, Joint Secretary, MNRE. Shri Srivastava added that Europe (4995 MW) is the global leader in terms of offshore wind energy installation followed by China (390 MW) and Japan (25 MW).

Addressing the stakeholders consultation, Shri B.K. Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission said since cost of power generated from offshore wind energy is more than that generated from onshore, policy frame work to be formulated should address this differential in account. He further said the Planning Commission will ensure highest priority to the renewable energy sector in the country so that it moves forward to achieve energy security in the country.

The Ministries/Departments which will be involved in the process of granting clearances for Offshore Wind Farm Projects are Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Coast Guard etc.

The Stakeholders’ Consultation witnessed participation of various stakeholders discussing different aspects for development of offshore wind energy in the country.

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Press release, August 15, 2013