Muppandal Wind Farm, established in 1986, is India’s largest operational onshore wind farm. The wind farm is also the third largest onshore wind farm in the world after Gansu Wind farm in China and Alta Wind Energy Center in California.
The wind farm has an installed capacity of 1,500 MW. It is one of the critical projects of the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency. The project illustrated the impact of renewable energy and wind farms on the state and rural parts of India, where 75% of the population lives.
The wind energy sector in Tamil Nadu has since developed profitably, representing 25% of India’s installed 39.25 GW capacity. Tamil Nadu’s turbines have a total of 9.8 GW installed capacity, leading all Indian states. Overall, India’s renewable energy enterprise in the state has also seen growth, as Tamil Nadu in 2014 accounted for 25.44% of all installed renewable energy capacity in India.
Who owns Muppandal Wind farm?
Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) developed the wind farm in 1986. The agency’s investment in Muppandal started the wind turbine movement in India.
Although TEDA is also involved in solar, wind power, and other renewable and low carbon projects, wind projects are a priority. It only took the Muppandal Wind farm project just a year to deliver energy after its establishment in 1985.
Several companies own Muppandal Wind Farm as the wind farm is scattered throughout the plains across different wind farm sites between Muppandal and Aralvaimozhi.
Where is the largest wind farm located in Tamil Nadu?
The largest wind farm in India is the Muppandal Wind farm in Kanyakumari District in Tamil Nadu. It is also the oldest operating wind farm, established in 1986.
Where is Muppandal Wind farm?
The wind farm is in Tamil Nadu, India, in the Kanyakumari district between Muppandal and Aralvaimozhi. Muppandal wind farm’s location is at the southern tip of India, only a few kilometers from the nation’s shoreline to the Laccadive sea.
The wind farm harnesses the wind blowing from the West’s Arabian sea. Additionally, the tunneling effect of the wind during the southwest monsoon also brings more wind power into the wind farms.
What is the installed wind power capacity of the Muppandal Wind farm?
Muppandal wind farm has an installed capacity of 1,500 MW–the largest in India. The wind farm achieved an installed capacity of 1,500 MW only in 2012.
What are the economic benefits of the Muppandal Wind farm?
For three decades, the positive and negative impacts of the wind farm had been felt across two generations.
There are accounts of ranchers who now find it difficult to find grazing for their cattle, while some rue the decreased agricultural produce from the lands.
Many also attest to wind turbines’ employment and job security. Young people who opt to stay in the countryside can still use their engineering degrees and improve their lifestyles.
Many who sold their land also turned a profit. Those who leased landed benefitted and sent their children to school.
For farmers, irrigation is made available using the electricity generated by the windmills. At the same time, the household appliances work because of the stable electricity from the wind turbines.
What wind turbines are used in the Muppandal Wind farm?
The wind energy generators used in the farm are Suzlon, Vestas, Enercon, and NEG Micron.
Will Muppandal Wind farm be repowered?
The farm’s aging wind turbines require renovations to sustain wind power generation. Repowering is replacing a turbine with a taller and larger turbine or calibrating with newer components.
Upgrading has tremendous upside. Suppose India can upgrade the 250 kW wind power units to 3 MW turbines. In that case, the farms can significantly increase the power and produce a tenfold increase. The newer turbines also have higher efficiency using newer components, pushing efficiency from 10% to 25%.
However, the outdated wind generation components can only be repowered once stakeholder permissions are secured. This process is called micrositing, where the surrounding farm owners, land owners, and wind turbine owners need to achieve a consensus that an area will be repowered.
Historically, there were few takers from the repowering program of India in 2016 due to a lack of financial incentives. Repowering is almost like building a new turbine.
In 2022, it is typical for a wind turbine manufacturer to build 2 to 3 MW turbines that can easily replace six to ten turbines each. This would also mean taller wind turbines that can produce more consistent electricity.
Repowering is also key to India’s competitive wind industry. India will install 20 GW of wind energy capacity between 2021 to 2025. GWEC states that repowering can add 4 GW to India’s installed capacity–almost a 10% increase.