Two public sector giants in India’s energy sector have come together to set up offshore wind energy projects. NTPC Limited and ONGC Limited have announced a partnership to set up offshore wind energy projects. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding last year.
The NTPC and ONGC partnership agreement also covers other clean energy sectors like storage and e-mobility.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set a target to set up 5 gigawatts offshore capacity by 2022 and 30 gigawatts capacity by 2030. However, progress on this front has been extremely slow.
India adopted its offshore wind energy policy in 2015 and there have been many reports indicating implementation of the first offshore wind project in the the country, but nothing has materialized.
In 2019, there were news reports claiming imminent launch of a tender for India’s first-ever auction for an offshore project. The project was supposed to be located in the western state of Gujarat and receive more than $900 million in subsidies. Again, no progress has been reported on this project.
Clean-Future feels that the latest announcement of partnership between the NTPC and ONGC is unlikely to bear any fruits in terms of actual project development, at least in the near future.
Offshore wind projects, while much more efficient compared to onshore projects, are very expensive. At present, the subsidized offshore projects will not be able to compete with record-low solar power tariffs.
Reference- Clean Technica, Economic Times, Mercom India, The Hindu, MNRE website