Investing in India’s wind energy

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April 22 – India will soon have two new wind energy farms generating 183.2 mega watts of electricity at a total cost of US$250 million. The wind farms will be situated in the western state of Gujarat and the south Indian state of Karnataka and will partly be financed by loans from the Asian Development Bank the rest coming from private sponsors, inrenal funds and long term debt.

India is already ranked fourth in the world for installed wind power generation, behind Germany, the U.S. and Spain. As of September 2007 India had over 7,200 MW of installed wind power capacity, with a gross potential for 45,000 MW.

As per the ADB's assesment, global energy demand is expected to rise by 53 percent by 2030 and developing Asia would represent a large part of the new needs with India aready the third largest energy consumer behind China and Russia.

Environmentally unfriendly thermal power plants, mostly coal fired provide 66 percent of India's capacity and hydro accounts for 26 percent. Gas and Oil fired thermal plants, renewable energy and nuclear power provide the rest.