Companies with sizeable domestic demand which are actively focussing on India are local players Suzlon and Inox Wind and Chinese companies Envision and Zenvion, formerly with REpower, say sources.

The draft wind energy policy says most of the wind turbines installed in India up to the year 2000 are of sub 1 MW capacity and are at sites having high wind energy potential. Some of the old wind turbines have already completed their design life while some are approaching the end of their design life. These are not only inefficient in comparison to the latest technology but also have lower hub heights (in the range of 30- 60m) in comparison to hub heights of 120-140 m range being installed these days. The government estimates 25406 MW of installed wind capacity in the country is 2MW and below, which can be replaced with 3MW and above onshore machines. In this direction, the Government came up with a draft repowering policy that may help to have new installations of 5 GW and attract an investment of over ₹40,000 crore in the next few years.

But repowering with higher machines has many hurdles. One prime issue to be addressed is how the country is going to deal with discarded machines, which is an environmental issue. Many old machines have gearboxes, which use oil and seeping this oil into the ground is an issue.

Another is windmills are located in hubs and land is owned by different companies. Right of way and dismantling may face issues and legal battles from neighbours, as all may not be interested in investing in new machines. Besides, new machines will have large and long blades of above 100 meters and transportation of these machines from factories in the hinterland to sites far away will be a big challenge.

Raw materials for machines also can be an issue. Take the case of blades, which weighs about 20 tonnes. Over 65% of the blade is glass and resin and carbon fibre are used to make this intricately complex product, a mesh of complex technology. Many parts for the machines are imported and the current capacity is about 1,50,000 MW to meet the requirement for large capacity addition, special glass and related capacity needs to be doubled, say sources.

draft wind energy policy

Windmill replacement up against hurdles