Evaluation of offshore wind power potential in the western coast of India: a preliminary study

The possibility of locating wind turbines on the seabed can open up a new frontier for wind power as a significant domestic renewable energy source along the western coast of India. Space for much larger projects is available in shallow coastal waters compared to land. To assess wind power potential in the western coast of India, first the bathymetric data are divided into three regions, i.e. 0-10, 10-20 and 20-35 m respectively, suitable for fixed-bottom foundation technology. Next, the wind data of several meteorological stations are collected from WindSat satellite. For a given bathymetry, using the characteristics of wind turbine, calculations are made for estimating average wind speed, wind power density and average output of wind turbine. Results of the preliminary study show that there exists a total available area of 67,622 sq. km (up to a depth of 35 m), suitable for installation of offshore wind turbines. Further, results reveal that within the total effective area, the average annual power generation of 477 and 437 TWh respectively, could be achieved using GE 3.6s and Repower 5M commercial offshore turbines. (author)