India's Wind Power Success

Filed in archive on July 31, 2006

The very first time I heard of a windmill was when the story of Don Quixote de la Machawas read to me when I was a boy of 8 or 9. Don Quixote, as the popular hero from Miguel dela Cervante's novel , fell off his horse after fighting what he thought was a "giant". Quite an analogy, since windmills and definitely wind power, is fast becoming a significant source of energy world wide that may knock us off our proverbial oil-horses.

One successful case of wind power use is India. India's Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Shri Villas Muttenwar recently announced an increase in installed wind power capacity from 3595 MW in 2004-05 to 5340 MW in 2005-06, with more wind energy projects to follow in all states that have wind energy potential. India is making these possible by providing incentives, such as concessional import duties on components of turbines, tax exemptions, accelerated depreciations, and loan facilities from financial institutions. Read more about India's efforts by clicking this link.

While India only ranks fourth in the global arena for most wind power used, it is nonetheless, on the path towards increased wind power appreciation. The benefits of wind energy are being milked continuously in India, in areas that are off-grid and rural, thus providing the best possible energy source to the lower income communities.

Was Don Quixote's adventure with the windmill a telling tale? Maybe so. Wind power is a powerful energy resource and given enough incentive would contribute to global climate change management too.