The Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT) is looking into the possibility of harnessing offshore wind power using floating turbines as part of Kerala’s push for renewable energy.
Through the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), ANERT has entered into an agreement with Norwegian firm World Wide Wind to explore options in this regard.
To demonstrate the potential, a pilot project with one or two floating wind turbines has been proposed temporarily off coastal Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram.
World Wide Wind specializes in counter-rotating vertical axis turbines which are quite different in design than the more familiar Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT).
ANERT Chief Executive Officer Narendra Nath Veluri said the pilot project would be in the range of 400 kilowatts and would be close enough to the coast for easy evacuation of the power generated. ”The details including cost and other factors are to be worked out and we will have follow-up discussions. The Norwegian firm should also identify an Indian partner,” Mr Veluri said.
big goals
The state government has announced plans to make Kerala a 100% renewable energy based state by 2040 and net carbon neutral by 2050.
Unlike wind turbines on land, offshore ones on floating structures offer constant wave speeds and specific challenges in terms of anchoring and power extraction.
Kerala has not yet explored the offshore wind power potential. ANERT’s plans coincide with the state government’s plans to overhaul the policy guidelines on wind energy released in 2004. The government has appointed a panel for this task with the CEO of ANERT as the convenor. Presently, wind power is only a small fraction (70.28 MW or 2.23%) of the total installed capacity of the state of 3145.82 MW.