Secretary of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Ratan P Watal has said that a National Offshore Wind Energy Authority (NOWA), under the aegis of the Ministry, will be constituted that will act as the nodal agency for offshore wind energy projects in the country.
NOWA will carry out resource assessment and surveys in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of the country and simultaneously enter into contract with project developers for development of offshore wind energy project in the territorial water (12 nm). He was speaking at the ‘National Consultation of Stakeholders regarding Development of Offshore Wind Energy in India in Delhi recently.
NOWA will be the single window agency and will coordinate with the ministries/departments concerned for necessary clearances. However, NOWA will only act as a facilitator for getting clearance and application for clearance will be dealt in entirety by the ministry/department concerned, he stated.
The Union government is committed to provide a conducive environment for harnessing offshore wind energy in the country. Laying down figures he stated that IndiaÂ’s onshore wind energy deployment has crossed 19,600 mw attracting $16.5 billion of investment in 2012 and it is estimated that by 2030 installed capacity could reach 191 gw.
In order to facilitate the flow of renewable energy into the national grid, the government plans to roll out a Rs 43,000-crore ‘green energy corridor’ project. The project will be implemented with the assistance of Germany which has promised to provide developmental and technical assistance of one billion euro as soft credit, he added.
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