Wind power potential in SAARC Country

by
safdar mehmood
PAKISTAN
It is acknowledged by the United States Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) that Pakistan has an approximately 346 GW potential as shown in Figure
1.However, this generation potential was estimated to be around 0.5 TW by the end of 2016. The
wind speed in the coastal wind zones of Sindh Province is approximately 5–12 m/s [1]. As such,
these coastal zones have some abundant resources for wind energy that are estimated to be about
20 GW, which suggests that this province has enormous potential for wind energy, which, upon
harnessing, could help in eradicating the electricity crisis [2], yet power generation through wind
is in initial stages in Pakistan and currently 06 MW has been installed in first phase in Jhampir
through a Turkish company and 50 MW will be installed shortly. More wind power plants will
be built in Jhampir, Gharo, Keti Bandar and Bin Qasim Karachi. Recently conducted survey of
Wind Power Potential along coastal areas of the country by Pakistan Meteorological Department
(PMD), indicates that a potential exists for harvesting wind energy using currently available
technologies, especially along Sindh coast. Gharo, one of the sites in Sindh where the wind data
have been recorded and studied by PMD, has been selected for this feasibility study. The wind
measurements at Gharo have been carried out during 24 months period. The annual mean wind
speed is estimated to be 6.86m/s at 50 meter above ground level. The annual power density of
area is 408.6 W/m2, which bring the site into good category of power potential, which means this
area is suitable for large economically viable wind farm. Using the measured wind data the
annual gross energy production by an 18 MW wind farm consisting of thirty – 600 kW turbines
will be 45 million kWh. Taking into account the wind turbine availability, net losses and wake
effects in the wind farm the net annual energy production is estimated to 31 million kWh per
year corresponding to a capacity factor of 28%. The total investment will be Rs: 850 million and
pay back period will be 7-8 years. The capital cost of wind power projects ranges Rs 4 to 5 crore
per MW. This gives a levelised cost of wind energy generation in the range of Rs: 2.50 to 3.00
per kWh, taking into consideration the fiscal benefits extended by the government[3].
 Figure 1. National renewable energy laboratory survey report
1. NREL. Pakistan 50 m Wind Power. NREL-USAID. Available online: http://www.nrel.gov/wind/pdfs/
final1-1-1pwr50pk.pdfS (accessed on 2 September 2016).

2. Muneer, T.; Asif, M. Prospects for secure and sustainable electricity supply for Pakistan. Renew. Sustain.
Energy Rev. 2007, 11, 654–671. [CrossRef].

3. Pakistan Meteorological Department. .http://www.pmd.gov.pk

India

Wind energy has been the fastest growing renewable energy sector in India. India has spent lots
of resources on increasing its energy capacity since independence. As a result, country’s
generation capacity has increased considerably.
The official assessment shows this country has potential to generate over 100,000 MW of wind
energy. Till May 2014, generation capacity of 21,268.3 MW has been created through wind,
which places India in the fifth place globally[4]. Government of India has set up a separate
ministry for renewable energy called Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) which is
responsible for planning and carrying out of the policy framework for renewable energy. MNRE
has incorporated Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET) as technical focal point for
development of wind energy in India [5]. This agency is responsible for wind resource
assessment in the country. Till the recent past, the official estimate of onshore wind potential in
India was 49.13 GW, but now it has been revised by C-WET to 102 GW, at 80 meter hub height
[6]. The C-WET has established country – wide network of 790 wind monitoring stations in 31
states and union territories for wind resource mapping.
According to C-WET estimation, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and
Maharashtra are leading states in wind energy potential [7]. Wind resource assessment done by
C-WET has made a vital contribution to wind energy industry as it identified suitable sites for
commercial use. State wise potential and installation till 31st May 2014 has been provided in
Table 2a and Table 2b respectively.
Table 1(a). State wise wind energy potential [6] Table 1(b). State wise wind energy installation [8,9]
4. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH Deepak Sangroya et al., Vol.5, No.1, 2015
5. B Rajsekhar, F Van Hulle, J.C Jansen, “Indian wind energy programme: performance and future directions”, Energy
Policy, vol 27, pp. 669-678, October 1999.
6. http://mnre.gov.in/file-manager/UserFiles/national-level-consultation-on-national- wind-energy-mission-09012014.htm
[accessed on 01.08.14].
7. http://www.cwet.tn.nic.in/html/departments_ewpp.html [accessed on 01.08.14].
8. S.C. Bhattacharya, Chinmoy Jana, “Renewable energy in India: Historical developments and prospects”, Energy, vol
34, pp. 981-991, August 2009
9. Indu R. Pillai, Rangan Banerjee, “Renewable energy in India: Status and potential”, Energy, vol 34(8), pp. 970-980,
August 2009.

Bangladesh

According to Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), the electricity demand of

Bangladesh will be 12,229 MW by the end of the year 2016[10]. Only 100MW of it will come
from wind power sources. Bangladeshi wind speed average 5 m/s to 3.5 m/s. It is not constant.
The following table gives information about the monthly variation of wind speed in some places
of Bangladesh. It is clear that the wind speed is not constant for power extraction at promising
level. In a particular year, but it is an important leveraging manner. It shows that the country's
electricity from wind turbine exhaust for a few months in certain areas is not possible at all. this
is shown in table
Table -2: Average Wind Speed (m/s) at 25 Meters Height at Different Locations in Bangladesh [11]

Obedience on conventional energy source is not benediction for Bangladesh. If conventional

energy sources fully reduced the country will face a serious problem. so Bangladesh need
alternative energy source. Bangladesh at various locations have the opportunity to increase its
wind power generation. Wind energy will be the most cost effective source of electrical power in
the near future.

[10] Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). Dhaka, Bangladesh.web.

[11] Sultan Ahmmed and M. Quamrul Islam, Wind Power for Rural Areas of Bangladesh, 3 rd International
Conference on Electrical &Computer Engineering, ICECE 2004, Pages 192-97, 28-30 Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bhutan
The wind energy extraction in Bhutan is in the planning stage by the help of international nonprofit
organization (USAID). With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),
the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) produced maps and
data of the wind resources in Bhutan.
Figure 2.[13]NREL wind map of bhutan.

The wind resource data show some areas with moderate to excellent potential in several valleys
throughout the country, including a few locations near power transmission lines with good-to-
excellent resource potential. Areas of good wind potential indicate where wind measurement
equipment could be installed to further study the resource. Because of Bhutan's complex terrain
and land cover variation, more data based on ground measurements are required to improve
understanding of the wind characteristics, particularly in valleys[14].

[13]www.nrel.gov/wind/images/

[14]www.nrel.gov / Potential for Development of Solar and Wind Resource in Bhutan

Nepal
Wind is still one of the non-harnessed energy resources in Nepal. It is not yet known on
the national scale how big its potential in the country is. Studies indicate that windpotential for
power generation is favourable for the Palpa, Mustang and Khumbu regionsof Nepal. In Kali
Gandaki between Jomsom and Chusang alone potential of 200 MW hasbeen estimated which, if
fully utilised, can supply the energy of 500 GWh/year (Dangrid,1992).In the past sporadic efforts
have been made to utilise the wind energy specially for lift irrigation purposes in which
international donor agencies, private manufacturers, R&D institutions and even individuals were
involved. Two wind turbines of 10 kW installed capacity were installed in Kagbeni of Mustang
district for US$150,000. But they also collapsed after 2–3 months of operation (Dangrid, 1992).
Thus the past experiences in harnessing wind energy were not encouraging. The main problems
being faced in the promotion of wind systems are: lack of reliable data, high initial cost,
unavailability of technical manpower in the country and the extreme heterogeneity of the
topography. A pilot project for demonstration and dissemination is being carried out by various
organisations such as AEPC, Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), RECAST,
etc. ITDG has installed five 200 W wind turbines at various locations such as Kavre, Palpa,
Makawanpur, Chiosapani (Karnali) and Udayapur for the stand-alone system whereas RECAST
has installed one 400 W wind turbine at Nagarkot for demonstration purposes[14]

[14]World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2005

sri-lanka
Wind studies were initially carried out in 2000/2002 by Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) at
several locations in the country by installing wind masts.Thereafter, The National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL) of USA conducted a full study for Sri Lanka and the Maldives using
satellite mapping.According to this study, the potential for wind power in Sri Lanka is 20,740
MW's. Thereafter, with the formation of The Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) in
2007,to develop non conventional renewable energy, they too started installing wind masts at
several location of the country [15]. The first pilot wind power plant of 3MW was set up in 1999
by the CEB in Hambantota. This project was not a success. Table 3 highlights the expected
wind energy generation capacity additions to our national grid in next 5 years,. In this period, the
contribution to the national grid from wind energy would be less than 10%[15].

Table 3. wind energy generation capacity in next 5 years.[15]

[15] http://www.windpower.lk

Maldives (insufficient data available)

Recently The Maldives’ State Electric Company Limited, STELCO, have signed a 20-year
agreement with Falcon Energy, whereby Falcon Energy will build and operate a 75 megawatt
wind farm in Gaafaru island, North Male’ at Olathe wind farm will produce clean electricity for
North Male’ atoll, which includes Male’ island, the Maldivian capital, the international airport
island of Hulhule’ and a number of luxury tourist resorts.The $200 million foreign direct
investment will see the construction of the latest generation wind turbines, which will be
connected to the electricity grid of Male’ through a network of submarine electricity cables[16].
[16] https://www.evwind.es

Afghanistan
The Panjshir wind power project , 100 kW wind/diesel hybrid project is currently statured funded by the
US State Dept through the Panjshir PRT. The project was originally designed by PRT engineers to be an
on-grid project, but then modified to to incorporate a diesel/battery/inverter system to reflect the
extremely weak grid access in the area. The project involves the construction of 10 x 10 kW Bergey
Windpower turbines, a concrete powerhouse and associated inverter and battery systems high on a ridge
in the Panjshir valley. Windspeeds of around 6.5 m/s are noted there due to the diurnal movement of air
up and down the valley each day. The project site was too remote for crane access and the 30m towers
and turbines were all installed using gin poles and winches[17].

Figure 3. Panjshir wind power project

[17] http://www.sesinter.com

[18]https://www.treehugger.com