21 Jun 2009
Tamil Nadu has a potential to add another 1000 MW and as a part of it to improve the power infrastructure, it has requested the Centre for a subsidy of Rs 1,500 crore. Regarding building up solar thermal and offshore wind turbines, the state minister said, for generating 1 mw of hydro-electric power and wind power the investment is Rs 5-6 crore, while for solar the cost is around Rs 18 crore and this can be done only with subsidies from the Government of India.
On offshore wind, the ministry said that the studies were carried out at 10 spots along the 720 km long Tamil Nadu coast indicated that average wind speed was only around 10 km per hour while at least 15 km per hour is needed and in such a situation offshore wind projects may fail and it would be a loss to the government and companies involved.
Also lots of scientific study needs to be done before we can get into it. The feasibility of these projects depends upon the speed and turbulence of wind and the softness and depth of the sea bed.
Source: www.expressbuzz.com