Beginning of this month, The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) published its annual statistics report for the global wind energy, revealing that a total of 54 gigawatts (GW) worth of wind energy was brought online in 2016, bringing the global cumulative total up to nearly 487 GW. China installed a total of 23 gigawatts of wind energy, nearly half the total. With 145.3 GW of installed capacity, China is followed in by U.S., Germany and India. At the end of January, India had 28.8 GW of capacity.
In India, by the end of the financial year 2016-17, the wind sector is expected to see 5000 MW of capacity addition according to Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturer’s Association. Only 2 years back, the wind sector struggled to achieve half of it.
To come close to the 5 GW mark for the financial year 2016-17, close to 3 GW will have to be added in February and March. That is not unrealistic as a rush of activity is expected from the developers owing to the fact that Accelerated Depreciation benefits for wind energy will be reduced from 80% to 40% (as was contained in Budget 2016) from April 1 and the current GBI of Rs.0.50/kWh will expire in March.
