Wind power projects fail to take off in Haryana

Wind power projects announced two years ago by the Haryana government are languishing. The proposed investment of Rs 2,305 crore from two wind power players – Mumbai-based Enercon and Pune-headquartered Suzlon – is still facing uncertainty as the one-year wind assessment study conducted by the two companies failed to comply with the requisite norms.

Enercon and Suzlon were shortlisted in January 2007 by the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency to set up wind power projects with a capacity of 440 Mw (of which 135 Mw is proposed to be provided to the state grid) at four locations – Panchkula district, Mewat, Mahendergarh and Gurgaon.

The MoUs were signed subsequently and the projects were envisaged to be completed by mid 2008. However, the assessments done by the companies between August 2007 and August 2008 suggested that the wind velocity in the Shivalik foothills in Panchkula district was in the range of 3 metre to 3.5 metre per second and between 3.8 and 4.2 metre per second in the Aravali foothills in Gurgaon district.

The ideal velocity required is 5 metre per second (18 kilometre per hour). Similarly, the wind density recorded during the assessment was 160 watt as against the required 200 watt.

The wind power producers recently requested the state government to provide them an extension to repeat the assessment as the velocity throughout the country dropped in the last year due to climatic factors. The government is contemplating stretching the timeframe provided to them.

The Haryana government had a target to generate 677 Mw of power through wind energy and biomass by the middle of 2008.

According to the officials in the renewable energy department, 21 bio-mass power generation projects with a capacity of 237 Mw and four projects with a capacity of 440 Mw would provide 13.5 million units per day to the state grid.