Wind Energy

The evolution of windmills into wind turbines did not happen overnight and attempts to produce electricity with windmills date back to the beginning of the century. It was Denmark which erected the first batch of steel windmills specially built for generation of electricity. After World War II, the development of wind turbines was totally hampered due to the installation of massive conventional power stations using fossil fuels available at low cost. But the oil crisis of 1973 heralded a definite break through in harnessing wind energy. Many European countries started pursuing the development of wind turbine technology seriously and their development efforts are continuing even today. The technology involves generation of electricity using turbines, which converts mechanical energy created by the rotation of blades into electrical energy, some times the mechanical energy from the mills is directly used for pumping water from well also. The wind power programme in India was started during 1983-84 with the efforts of the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources. In India the total installed capacity from wind mills is 1612 MW, of which, Tamilnadu has an installed capacity of 858 MW as on 31.03.2002.

Tamil Nadu is endowed with lengthy mountain ranges on its Western side with three prominent passes in its length. These are with wind-potentials:

(1) Palghat Pass in Coimbatore District-1200 MW, (2) Shengottah Pass in Tirunelveli District-500MW and (3) Aralvoymozhi Pass in Kanniyakumari District- 300 MW (Total potential-2000 MW). The mountainous areas close to Cumbum Valley are observed to be having high potential and, though coastal areas, central plains and hilly areas have been observed unsuitable for wind power projects, Rameshwaram is found suitable.

The total wind potential in the State is around 2000 MW of which about 40% only has been tapped so far. The installation of 119 Wind electric generators for a total capacity of 19 MW as part of demonstration programmes has motivated and encouraged private sector to install 3003 Wind electric generators for a total capacity of   838 MW.   The Wind Mills have a total capacity of 857 MW, of which, 181 MW capacity was added during the Ninth Plan and have generated and fed into the grid (6816.379 Mu.)

Installation of windmill for water pumping was taken up by providing subsidy ranging from Rs.20,000 to Rs.32,000 from State Government besides MNES subsidy of Rs.30,000 to Rs.45,000 against the total cost of Rs.80,000 for gear type and Rs.1,45,000 for AV55 type Wind Mills. During Ninth plan period, 18 gear type Wind Mills were installed from 1997 to 2000 and another 4 mills were also installed by the end of 2002. Wind monitoring stations were set up in 11 centres in Coimbatore, Erode, Kanyakumari and Tuticorin to conduct Wind Resource Assessment study which helps to identify potential locations for wind mills.