To increase power generation potential of low-capacity wind mills, the government will provide additional interest rate rebate of 0.25 percent for wind turbine generators of up to 1 megawatt. The government has come up with the policy to promote optimum utilisation of wind energy resources as a large number of wind-turbines installed up to the year 2000 are of capacity below 500 KW and are at sites having high wind energy potential, a senior official told PTI.
Initially, wind turbine generators of capacity of up to one MW would be eligible for repowering under the policy. However, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) can extend the policy to other projects also after evaluation of their initial experience. “The main aim of the Repowering Policy is to promote optimum utilisation of wind energy resources by creating facilitative framework for repowering,” the official said. As per the policy, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) will provide an additional interest rate rebate of 0.25 percent over and above the interest rate rebates available to the new wind projects being financed by IREDA. Besides, all fiscal and financial benefits available to the new wind projects will be available to the repowering projects.
The official said a large number of wind-turbines installed up to the year 2000 are of capacity below 500 KW and are at sites having high wind energy potential. He further said it is estimated that over 3000 MW capacity installation are from wind turbines of around 500 KW or below. Therefore, in order to optimally utilise the wind energy resources, repowering is required, he added. The major share of renewable power capacity in India is from wind energy. India started harnessing the wind power prior to 1990. The present installed capacity is over 27 GW which is fourth largest in the world after China, the US and Germany.
Source:PTI
