India’s federal government signed an agreement with state-run agencies to build the nation’s first offshore wind power project off the coast of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.
The 100-megawatt project will receive financial support from the government, including for studies and environmental evaluations. Power transmission will also be subsidized, the Press Information Bureau said in a statement today. It didn’t give a time frame for when the studies and project will be completed.
Modi plans to increase the use of renewable sources to provide power to all households in the country by 2019, even as demand in Asia’s second-biggest energy consumer continues to grow. The nation’s 7,600 kilometers (4,723 miles) of coastline offers it the ability to develop the offshore wind industry, according to the government statement.
The government is also preparing a National Offshore Wind Energy Policy and a note has been sent to cabinet ministers for discussion, it said in the statement. India already has more than 22,000 megawatts of wind power generation capacity on land, according to today’s statement.
The agreement for the offshore wind project was signed between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and a consortium of NTPC Ltd, Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd., Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, Power Finance Corp., PTC India Ltd. and Gujarat Power Corp., according to today’s statement.
