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GLOBAL RENEWABLES ONLINE - APRIL 2012
WIND NEWS
essary development of industrial
wind power projects throughout
the province, which is altering rural
communities, causing power bills to
rise dramatically, and even causing
some people to become ill from ex-
posure to the environmental noise.
“This province is in trouble finan-
cially, says Jane Wilson, president
of Wind Concerns Ontario, one of
the groups participating. “So why
do we continue to reward these de-
velopers with rich, multi-million-
dollar contracts, for expensive and
unreliable power that we don’t
need? People are really very angry.”
More than 40 groups participated
including: Oppose Belwood Wind
Farm Association, Toronto Wind
Action, Central Huron Against Tur-
bines, Middlesex-Lambton Wind
Action, North Gower Wind Action
Group, Preserve Mapleton, Clear-
view WAIT, Association for the Pro-
tection of Amherst Island, Wolfe
Island Residents for the Environ-
ment, and Nor’Wester Mountain
Escarpment Protection Committee.
INDIA’S ONSHORE WIND
POTENTIAL RE-ASSESSED: UP TO
3000 GW INSTEAD OF 100 GW
Bonn/New Delhi (WWEA) – Scientif-
ic and research work carried out by
Indian wind industry expert Jami
Hossain has inspired scientists at
Lawrence Berkley National Labo-
ratory (LBNL) to challenge assess-
ments of the Chennai based gov-
ernment agency, Center for Wind
Energy Technology (CWET), on the
potential for windfarms in India.
Jami Hossain in his paper, pub-
lished in the international renew-
able energy journal Renewable
Energy [1], presented his findings
on the assessment for potential
for windfarms using Geographi-
cal Information System Platform
(GIS Platform). In this paper, Hos-
sain pointed out that the poten-
tial for wind energy utilization with
the prevalent technologies is far in
excess of the potential claimed to
have been assessed by CWET (ini-
tially at 49’000 MW and later at
102’000 MW) [2]. Hossain assessed
the potential at around 2000 GW,
which has now been confirmed by
the LBNL study which sees the to-
tal onshore wind potential of In-
dia between 2000 and 3000 GW.
Based on Hossain’s work, scientists
at LBNL [3] have re-looked at the
potential assessment under a proj-
ect sponsorship by ClimateWorks
Foundation through a contract with
the Regulatory Assistance Project.
LBNL has come up with a report “Re-
assessing Wind Potential Estimates
for India: Economic and Policy Impli-
cations”. The report re-validates as-
sessment made by Hossain earlier.
Jami Hossain: “We have tried to
further refine and improve these
figures based on competing uses
of land in the country but with the
continued improvement in technol-
ogy, the onshore potential is indeed
very high compared to what was as-
sessed earlier. The gross under es-
timation by CWET has prevented
the policy makers and the planning
bodies in the country such as the
planning commission and Central
Electricity Authority (CEA) in rec-
ognizing wind energy as a major
and possibly mainstream source of
wind energy. With rising oil pric-
es and uncertainties associated as
well as major bottlenecks in supply
of coal, the findings assume impor-
tance from an energy security and
global environmental perspective.”
Stefan Gsänger, WWEA Secretary
General: “These findings have sig-
nificant policy implications for In-
dia as every unit of electricity gen-
erated from wind not only saves oil
and coal but also prevent emissions
of CO2 and other environmentally
dangerous gases. Unfortunately In-
dia is not the only country where
the wind potential has been un-
derestimated by far. Recent stud-
ies and national targets e.g. from
China, Denmark or Germany - and
now from India - have demonstrat-
ed that wind could cover the whole
electricity demand of these coun-
tries. Many more countries should
update their wind potential assess-
ment, based on real data, in order
not any more to underestimate the
potential contribution of wind pow-
er to the national energy supply.”
Jami Hossain: “I am very happy now
that reputed institute like LBNL has
relooked at this assessment and has
come up with findings that further
revalidate my findings. Its an irony
that the recent budget announced
by Finance Minister had nothing for
wind energy while coal seems to have
been exempted from import duty.”