India will be featured at WindEnergy Hamburg 2020. According to the GWEC Annual Report 2019 the South-Asian nation is the world’s fourth-largest onshore wind market, boasting 37.5GW total installations. The consultancy Wood Mackenzie sees two fundamental drivers in place to sustain market growth: rising energy demand and political ambition.
Hamburg, 21 July 2020 – Energy demand in India is expected to double in the next decade, with firm Indian government goals to achieve a 60GW operational wind power capacity by 2022 and 140GW in 2030. During 2019 India remained Asia’s second largest wind market with 2.4GW of newly added wind capacity, and it accounted for 3.9% of all new onshore installations, good for a 4th global ranking position.
On 4 June the consultancy Wood Mackenzie predicted 2.5GW of new wind installations in CY 2020, down 1GW from earlier predictions. However, according Mercom India statistics for Q1-2020 saw only 189MW coming online, with Tamil Nadu state leading with a 25% share. Experts are not very optimistic about the rest of 2020 because as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown, at least two good months normally key to wind turbine installation were lost. The upcoming monsoon period is traditionally not good for project realisation either.
Positive Indian insider sources say that the export of main components like gearboxes from the comprehensive supply chain to main wind markets, especially in the US, is booming. The trade challenges between the US and China is considered as another factor benefiting Indian companies.
Equally encouraging, according a GWEC report, is the government’s announcement of a stimulus package amounting to about 10% of India’s GDP, offering another boost to the economy which had been hit hard by COVID-19. The package also provides new liquidity to the energy sector. Finally, the announced removal of upper ceiling tariffs for future solar and wind project auction bids by India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) represents a Win-Win situation, according to developers. It is thereby anticipated that the move from tariffs towards a purely market-driven approach without artificial caps, and with probably higher future tariffs, will give another boost to developer interest.
