Offshore wind energy policy approved.

The Cabinet has approved the National Offshore Wind Energy policy which would provide the roadmap for development of such plants in the country.

'The policy framework will provide a roadmap for mapping the off-shore wind energy potential. Based on this we will locate and identify the areas which have the potential for offshore wind energy. Government will get all approvals for these areas and offer it to developers by way of bidding,' Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy, said.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will be the nodal Ministry for use of offshore areas within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the country and the National Institute of Wind Energy will be the nodal agency to allocate wind energy blocks to developers.

According to the policy, the offshore wind energy plants can come up to seaward distance of 200 nautical miles of the country from the base line.

Goyal said as per estimates, Gujarat has a potential of around 100,000 MW for off-shore wind energy while Tamil Nadu has about 60,000 MW. 'As and when the scale of operations increase, the competitiveness of off-shore wind energy will also improve,' he added.

The Minister also said that the Barh power plant of NTPC in Bihar has been given a coal linkage. This would help reduce the variable cost of generation of the plant to Rs. 2 a unit from Rs. 4.15 a unit.

The plant has a generation capacity of 1,320 MW of which 660 MW is already operational and the remaining will be operational by next month.

'The yearly savings will be to the tune of Rs. 2,000 crore because of the coal linkage,' Goyal said adding that 1,110 MW of the power generated from Barh has been allocated for Bihar.

Further, as part of the Bihar package, around Rs. 1,850 crore of additional investment has been approved for the State as part of the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana and Integrated Power Development Scheme.

Goyal said that originally Rs. 6,106 crore had been approved for the State under the two schemes which are related to electricity transmission. The approval has now been increased to Rs. 7,956 crore.


HBL