Redirecting wind energy in India

India's energy transition is heavily driven by solar power, but thermal energy still meets approximately 80% of demand during non-solar hours. The report highlights that wind energy provides critical diurnal, seasonal, and spatial complementarity to solar, which can stabilize the grid and lower tariffs through hybrid projects. To meet the 14th National Electricity Plan (NEP14) targets by 2032, India must add 122 GW of wind capacity, requiring a 22% year-on-year growth rate. The document outlines policy interventions such as revised Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO), repowering older turbines, and the development of offshore wind in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, while noting that state-level policy gaps and land acquisition remain significant hurdles.

• Thermal power continues to dominate India's electricity supply during non-solar hours, meeting approximately 80% of total demand on average, while wind contributes only about 6%.
• Wind and solar energy in India exhibit temporal complementarity: solar peaks during the day, while wind often peaks during the night and early morning, and seasonal complementarity where wind generation increases during the monsoon (June–September) as solar generation decreases due to cloud cover.
• Had India achieved its 2022 wind target of 60 GW, wind energy could have fulfilled up to 14.5% of the demand during non-solar hours, reducing thermal reliance by approximately 7 percentage points.
• Wind-solar hybrid projects achieve lower tariffs than standalone wind projects due to higher capacity utilisation factors (CUF) and optimized transmission infrastructure. For example, a 1200 MW hybrid tender discovered tariffs between INR 3.43-3.46 per unit, compared to INR 3.60-3.70 per unit for a 1350 MW vanilla wind auction.
• To meet the 14th National Electricity Plan (NEP14) targets by March 2032, India needs to add 122 GW of wind capacity, which requires a year-on-year installation growth rate of 22%.
• The Indian government is implementing several policies to boost wind, including a revised Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) trajectory targeting 3.48% by 2030, a 50 GW annual bidding trajectory (with 10 GW reserved for wind from FY2024 to 2028), and a viability gap funding (VGF) scheme of INR 74.53 billion for offshore wind.
• India has significant potential for wind repowering, estimated at 25 GW for turbines up to 2 MW capacity. Tamil Nadu was the first state to launch a specific policy for repowering, refurbishing, and life extension in 2024.
• The wind sector provides substantial economic benefits, including 40,000 jobs in 2022 (per IRENA) and an annual domestic manufacturing capability of 17.25 GW, exporting components to the USA, Europe, Brazil, and Australia.

APA

Ember (2024). Redirecting wind energy in India. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/redirecting-wind-in-india

Chicago

Ember. Redirecting wind energy in India. 2024. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/redirecting-wind-in-india.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=Redirecting wind energy in India |date=8 October 2024 |url=https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/redirecting-wind-in-india |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2024redirecting, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{Redirecting wind energy in India}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/redirecting-wind-in-india}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }