Wind power potential over India using the ERA5 reanalysis

India's growing installed capacity for electricity generation faces demands from surging domestic consumption, national energy security and obligations under climate change accords. It is exigent to increase focus on re-newables as their share in net electricity generated may reach 22 % by 2030, against the goal of 40 % from non-fossil fuels by 2030 as pledged under the Paris Agreement. Wind energy is preferable at higher levels of re-newables due to favourable capacity factors. Prior investigations necessary to develop wind farms are better achieved through reanalysis datasets than satellite-derived wind products, which are temporarily coarse and limited to off-shore regions. In this study, we estimate wind power potential at 100 m level over the Indian domain using data from the ERA5 reanalysis for 1979-2018 through the Weibull mixture distribution. Our findings indicate that India's mainland (off-shore) regions have a wind power potential of nearly 7.2 TW (18.4 TW), considering just 3 % of the available area. Further, up to 53 TW is available for exploitation over sparsely vegetated areas, which extend up to 25 % of India's mainland. Future efforts for exploiting wind energy should focus on the availability of wind resources and their proximity to energy-hungry regions.

Automated summary

India's increasing electricity generation capacity must meet the demands of domestic consumption, energy security, and climate change accords. To achieve the goal of 40% non-fossil fuel electricity by 2030, a greater focus on renewables is necessary, particularly wind energy. This study uses reanalysis data to estimate India's wind power potential, finding that both onshore and offshore regions have significant potential, with up to 7.2 TW and 18.4 TW respectively. Sparsely vegetated areas have an additional 53 TW of wind power potential. Future efforts should concentrate on the availability of wind resources near energy-hungry regions.