India's wind power potential over one lakh MW: govt

An assessment by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has estimated that the total wind power potential of India was over one lakh MW, the Lok Sabha was told today.
In his written reply, Minister of State for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy (Independent charge) Piyush Goyal said, a wind resource assessment programme has been implemented by the ministry through the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET) to estimate the wind potential in the country and identify suitable sites of installation of wind power programme.
"A total of 790 sites have so far been assessed in view of wind potential programme availability. A total wind power potential in the country has been estimated at 1,02,788 MW at 80 M hub height," he said.

To another question, the Minister said the government has proposed to tap the country's solar and wind energy potential lying unexplored in the deserts.
A study to identify the likely renewable power potential in desert regions in Rajasthan (Thar), Gujarat (Rann of Kutch), Himachal Pradesh (Lahul & Spiti) and Jammu and Kashmir (Ladakh) was also conducted in this regard.
"The report has assessed a total available potential of 315.7 GW of solar and wind power in these regions. The report has further estimated that the investment requirement for harnessing the available potential upto 2050 would be Rs 43,74,550 crores," the Minister added.

Replying to a question whether the Ministry fully utilised the allocation made during the 11th five-year plan, Goyal said an expenditure of Rs. 3798.72 crore was incurred against an allocation of Rs. 3898.20 crore during the 11th plan period.
Hence, the expenditure was about 97 per cent, he added.