Locating a Wind Energy Project: A Case of a Leading Oil and Gas Producer in India

Energy has been considered a major driver for socio-economic development. Its major generation has been from fossil fuels that are expected to get depleted rapidly over the next few decades. Hence, there is an urgent need for shifting reliance to renewable sources of energy for sustainability. In view of this urgent need, a leading oil and gas producer in India desired assessing an optimum and financially feasible location for setting-up a wind power project in India. Recognizing this need, this work attempts to assess various factors for deciding the Indian state to locate a wind energy project. Apart from site location specific factors, machine factors, energy market, incentives and exemptions play a key role in aiding this decision. However, considerable variations in the wind energy policy incentives of various Indian states complicate this facility location decision. Thus this work compares the wind energy policies of five operationally feasible states in India through a critical evaluation of financial feasibility of setting up a wind power project in those states. The methodology illustrated is replicable and can also be used to compare wind energy policies across other states and geographical locations. They also provide a basis to the governments to adopt the attractive prevalent practices in terms of incentives to promote renewable energy such as wind.