ANNOUNCEMENTS
Climate change is a serious issue around the world. Along with this, issues of secure energy supply and growing energy prices are increasingly pressing for governments worldwide. In response, countries are diversifying their electricity generation methods by transitioning to renewable energy sources. During the last 10 years, India's renewable energy capacity has gone up by more than five times, and the country is undertaking additional measures to develop long-term decarbonization strategies for its power sector. One of the major renewable energy sources being explored is offshore wind power. While offshore wind farms currently come at a higher cost, they are vital for reducing India's carbon footprint in the power sector. This is because they boast a significantly “greater capacity utilization factor” compared to other renewable energy sources. Also, due to the presence of a vast coastline, India has huge potential for offshore power. Thus, this paper tries to unveil India’s offshore potential and investigates the bottlenecks hindering its deployment despite the region's significant potential. Additionally, it identifies key success factors and innovations from successful offshore markets and suggests how these can be implemented to enhance and optimize India's approach to offshore wind energy. From the study, it is revealed that there exists a huge offshore wind potential in Gujarat and the offshore electricity generation curve coincides well with the peak electricity demands, thus reducing the storage investment costs. Also, high levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) values, grid integration issues, policy barriers and lengthy lifecycle of offshore wind projects come out as some of the major barriers affecting the offshore wind uptake in the country. Further, the paper concludes by discussing mechanisms to reduce offshore wind installation costs. It highlights the importance of localizing the supply chain, establishing clear financing mechanisms, and streamlining the clearance process as key recommendations to accelerate India's development of offshore wind energy.
Keywords: Offshore wind, Decarbonization, Levelized cost of electricity, Grid integration, Renewable power.
