Wind Power Projects in India and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Approach - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 62

among the available options of renewable electricity generation where input fuel is
in abundance and without any cost. The development of wind power in India be-
gan in the 1990s, and has increased significantly in the last few years (MNRE,
2009). Grid-connected wind based power generation has been one of the main
growing power sectors in India. Exponential increase in wind potential has been
observed from the year 2003 where the energy produced was only 2100 MW
(MNRE 2009). In figure 7.1 it can also be observed that there was a decrease in
the installed wind capacity in 2006 due to the damages caused by Tsunami. The
Indian Carbon market started maturing in 2006 (IGES 2010) and the significant
increase in installed wind capacity from year 2006 can be regarded as a result of
additional benefits provided by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) mar-
ket (Baumert et al. 2000) towards wind power project ( Figure 7.1 ).
India has a total wind potential of 45,000 MW (MNRE 2009). Even though ex-
ponential growth in the wind power production has been observed ( Figure 7.1 ),
the wind power production is only about 19% of its total potential (MNRE 2009).
Table 7.1 gives the detailed information of the present wind power production in
comparison with the total wind power which can be achieved from different states
in India. Table 7.1 gives the percentage of untapped wind energy potential from
different states. The states West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh
and Rajasthan show a huge potential, which can be explored. The state Tamilnadu
which is utilizing almost all of its wind energy potential can be an example for the
other states in India.
Fig. 7.1. Exponential increase of wind power potential in India from 1996 to 2008 (source:
MNRE 2009)