Tamil Nadu could deliver 25 GW of new wind capacity, attract billions of dollars of investment, and generate over 100,000 jobs in the best-case scenarios of GWEC’s new roadmap for the state, which is developed in partnership with the SED Fund and Deloitte.
Tamil Nadu Wind Energy Roadmap: Harnessing Net Zero Opportunities outlines how enacting a policy that embraces the state’s wind potential could help Tamil Nadu become one of the key investment destinations in Asia and deliver enormous green-impetus into the state’s economy.
The roadmap outlines twelve key actions (note: actions are detailed below) to help the state exploit its potential and make it one of the top three investment destinations in Asia by 2030.
Mr Ben Backwell, CEO of Global Wind Energy Council said: “GWEC is delighted to publish the Tamil Nadu Wind Energy Roadmap. This important document will support the Tamil Nadu government as it implements the enabling policy to unleash the potential of renewables in the state.
“Tamil Nadu has already set benchmarks for the rest of India and become a focal point for the wind industry in Asia. This Roadmap identifies high-impact and concrete opportunities to further increase the demand and supply of wind energy in the state, which would also further strengthen the state’s position in the regional wind industry.
“I convey my sincere appreciation to HE Thiru M K Stalin, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, for his inspiring and ardent leadership on climate action to date, and also recognise the institutionalization of Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company and Tamil Nadu Governing Council on Climate Change (GCCC) as positive steps in the state’s pathway for transformation.”
Mr Sumant Sinha, Chairperson of GWEC India and CEO, Founder and Chairman of ReNew Power said “Blessed with abundant renewable energy resources, rich experience, and a growing appetite for green power, Tamil Nadu is the land of opportunities. The state’s climate ambitions very well recognize the pivotal role of renewable energy, including wind energy, that has a dominant share in both the installed renewable energy capacity and the assessed potential. Harnessing the full potential and complementarity of wind and other clean energy resources is necessary to create new avenues for investments, including in emerging areas such as green hydrogen and offshore wind. All of these will contribute significantly to socio-economic growth in the state and the country”
Mr Martand Shardul, Policy Director GWEC India said “Tamil Nadu must exploit its abundantly available renewable energy resources, including wind energy to accomplish its economic aspirations, climate ambitions, and clean energy transition goals. An emphasis must be on securing both the green energy supply as well as green energy technology supply chain. Wind manufacturing is pursued in only a few pockets of the world and Tamil Nadu must build on its existing leadership in this area to enhance its share in the global wind supply chain thereby creating opportunities for new jobs, investments and trade surplus”.
Key Statistics and take-aways from the Tamil Nadu Wind Energy Roadmap
An economic powerhouse and a climate champion, Tamil Nadu has been at the forefront of reaping the benefits of its abundantly available renewable energy resources.
Statistics: Renewable Energy and Wind Power
- Almost 53% of installed power generation capacity from renewable energy, including hydropower
- Wind power constitutes 84% of the state’s renewable energy potential followed by solar (14%)
- Tamil Nadu’s installed wind power capacity contributes to almost 1/4th of India’s installed wind power capacity
- State hosts 51% of India’s captive wind installed capacity and 17% of captive solar installed capacity
- Home to the world’s leading wind manufacturing companies: Nacelle plants (Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, Nordex), TPI Composites (Blades exports)
- 100s of MSMEs engaged in domestic and global wind supply chain
- Green hydrogen production requires 10-50 units of electricity per kg: Co-locating green power generation and hydrogen production may bring down costs
Statistics: Power Sector
- 37 GW of installed power generation capacity
- Power generation attributable to almost 50% of the state’s emissions
- State purchases round-the-clock power from other states and has a swap management arrangement to exchange power with outside state generators during various parts of the year
- Growing appetite for round-the-clock (RTC) green power consumption from emerging demand centres such as data centres, electric mobility and prospective hydrogen production units
- State’s power consumption likely to surge from an estimated 93 BU in 2021-2022 to 183 BU in 2031-2032: ~1.8x growth in this decade
- The Commercial and Industrial (C&I) sector’s power consumption is likely to witness a 2.7x growth between 2021-2022 and 2031-2032
- Planned power generation capacity only centres around thermal, hydro, and pumped hydro projects
- No state wind tenders in the past several years and during last few years capacity addition has happened only through central tenders
As per GWEC, the state could leverage the wind sector to meet its economic aspirations, climate ambitions (net zero opportunities), and clean energy transition goals.
- State aims to become 1 of the 3 most attractive investment destinations in Asia by 2030
- Tamil Nadu aims to increase the contribution of its manufacturing sector to 30% of GSVA by 2030
- Financial institutions are increasingly inclined towards sustainability, environment, and climate/green investments
Key recommendations
Investment and Trade Promotion
- As per Global Wind Report 2022, India presently has an 8.5% share in the global wind supply chain. However, IEA and IRENA have estimated over 8000 GW of installed wind capacity that is required to meet 1.5-degree goal by mid-century: Tamil Nadu is one of the world’s few regions with a complete value chain for wind manufacturing and the state must leverage this to enhance its share in the global supply chain which continues to bring trade surplus
- Facilitate wind sector exports by institutionalizing trade facilitation offices in key international markets
- Convene green power marketplace during forthcoming editions of investor summit
- Set phase-wise targets for inviting detailed project reports (DPRs) and investment plans that already have a NetZero plan in place
- Convene high-level green hydrogen working group comprising the public and private sector players (including wind and solar generators, hydrogen producers and consumers, electrolyser and power electronics supply chain experts)
Power
- Upgrade as well as add power evacuation and transmission infrastructure to harness onshore wind, offshore wind, repowering, and renewable energy hybrid project potential
- Introduce the state’s wind-solar-storage hybrid policy and roll out new tenders to ensure the availability of round-the-clock (RTC) green power in the future
- Continue harnessing vanilla wind projects to support long-term grid balancing and green energy security
- To be able to harness 35 GW of offshore wind potential, explore partnerships with MDBs and other institutions for capacity building, institutionalizing risk mitigation and infrastructure development funds
- Continued roll-out of large tender volumes shall be required to facilitate opportunities for offshore wind manufacturing in the country which may thereby advance the business case for port upgrades
- Administer surveys to determine actual repowering potential and introduce incentives to promote the uptake of repowering
Environment
- Convene a high-level advisory group for facilitating a “Green Transition Tracker” tool to measure progress in the C&I segment. The tool may help bring down the cost of green investments (as some level of due diligence would be done) in the state and eventually attract new-age financial instruments such as green bonds, blue bonds, climate finance and harness carbon markets
As per GWEC’s publication “Tamil Nadu Wind Energy Roadmap: Harnessing Net Zero Opportunities”, jointly developed with support from SED Fund and Deloitte, the following are the key findings:
- Low case: 4 GW of additional wind capacity could be added by 2030 if major power evacuation and transmission infrastructure challenges and other legacy challenges are not addressed
- Base case (13 GW of new wind capacity could be added by 2030): it is estimated that nearly 16% of India’s total installed capacity will come from Tamil Nadu by 2030. The capacity additions will be lower in the initial years, but as constraints will get eased and policy interventions are introduced, the state will witness an increase in annual capacity addition in the later years.
- High case: 25 GW of new wind capacity could be added by 2030
- Investment required: To add an additional 13 GW wind capacity under the base case scenario by 2030, it is estimated that Tamil Nadu will require a total of INR 746 billion (~USD 10 billion). Assuming a debt-equity ratio of 75:25, around INR 186 billion (USD 2.5 billion) equity infusion is required
- Jobs: In the base case scenario, there is a potential to generate over 70 thousand direct jobs and more than 100 thousand indirect jobs
- Saving water: Switching from thermal to wind energy generation could save nearly 12 million litres of water annually in the base case scenario
- Contribution to GDP: It is estimated that the GDP contribution under the base case scenario would be INR ~1120 billion
