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India: Wind Power Projects Face Delays due to Land Unavailability

Several wind power projects have missed their completion deadlines due to unavailability of land. Ever since wind power projects began in February 2017 to be awarded through auctions, there have been 16 successful auctions so far. Eighty projects, worth 14,412.64 MW capacity, have been awarded to wind developers.

 

Each auction has its own deadline for completion of projects awarded under it. By now, 5,087 MW projects should have come up, against which the achievement is 1,707 MW.

 

Of the 14,412 MW awarded, 9,370 MW were through eight successful auctions of the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). It buys power from wind (and solar) companies and sells the power to electricity distribution companies (discoms) in non-windy states, under back-to-back agreements with the discoms.

 

As the competitively-determined tariffs squeezed margins, most developers opted to put up their projects in the two windiest states of India -- Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Out of the 31 projects awarded under the first five SECI auctions, (for which developers have disclosed the states of choice), 21 opted for Gujarat, nine opted for Tamil Nadu and one for Karnataka.

 

The government of Gujarat felt it was not all right that 21 projects worth 4,975 MW should take up its windiest sites and all the cheap power should go to other states. Hence, it stopped allocation of land, wanting to reserve the land for itself. In Tamil Nadu, too, land issues have cropped up.

 

The state is refusing to let wind turbines be put on agricultural lands. The deadlines for the other projects are closing in. As much as 2,950 MW of SECI-IV and-V and 500 MW of Maharashtra are scheduled to come up in 2020.

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