CHENNAI: India is expected to have its first offshore windmill in Dhanushkodi in the next five years, according to Dr S Gomathi Nayagam, executive director of Centre for Wind Energy Technology, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.Speaking after inaugurating the two-day conference on Renewable Energy Sector Policy Challenges organised by Chennai-based Centre for Development Finance (CDF), a non-profit action research think-tank of Indian Institute for Financial Management and Research, in association with Friedrich Naumann Stiftung fur die Freiheit, Nayagam said it took 10 years for Germany to build offshore windmills, but India, after learning from the German experience, can build it in half the time.He said the offshore windmill will come up on the tip of the nine-km narrow strip on the sea. “Currently a 100 metre mast is being built to measure the wind upto seven levels and Scottish Development International is helping us with the project,” he said. Interestingly, offshore windmills can be much bigger than onshore 0nes and can generate about 30 per cent more power for the same capacity as compared to onshore projects.He highlighted the need for site specific designs to tap wind energy. India is borrowing the technology from the West and the machines are suitable for tapping wind at a speed of 12-17 metres per second while in India the speed in most of the sites is about 6-7 metres per second. He said soon Chinese windmill manufacturers will enter the Indian wind energy market. Earlier, the website www.householdenergy.in and a study report ‘Atlas of Household Energy Consumption and Expenditure in India’ was also released.
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