Offshore Wind: Avenues for deeper collaboration between the EU and India?

The Offshore Wind sector in India has made spectacular progress in the last four years,
providing another example of a successful partnership with the European Union (EU). Starting
out with just a policy framework published by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy 1 in
2015, India now stands at the cusp of adding another vital source of renewable energy after
completing the feasibility studies in collaboration with the European Union and the impending
call for tender at the end of 2018. The EU and its member states have been partnering with
India to increase the share of renewables in India’s energy mix. To achieve that aim, India-EU
Clean Energy and Climate Partnership was announced during the EU-India Summit 2016 2, with
offshore wind as a key area of the EU-India Cooperation on Climate Change. India sees this
collaboration as essential to achieve its renewable energy (RE) target of adding 227 GW of RE
by 20223, which includes 5GW of offshore wind energy by 2022 and 30 GW by 2030 4. This piece
analyses India’s partnership with the EU, and provides recommendations to strengthen this
partnership – through 1) knowledge sharing on port development, 2) sharing of scenario
planning practices for grid development and, 3) collaboration with the German Federal Ministry
for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to overcome bottlenecks in RE evacuation.
India is already placed fourth globally in installed onshore wind capacity. Why then does India
need offshore wind energy? Although costlier, offshore wind installations experience higher
wind speeds at sea and therefore have higher productivity compared to their onshore
counterparts5. Realizing this countries in the North Sea, such as the United Kingdom, Germany
and Denmark, started experimenting with offshore wind as early as 1990, but only recently did
the industry become economically viable. India however can make the offshore wind industry
competitive a lot faster, claimed Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy
Council which is a consortium of over 1500 companies representing the offshore wind sector 6.
Other than North Sea countries, China has been at the forefront of the offshore wind
revolution, taking the leadership position in Asia. China now stands just behind the UK and
Germany in installed total capacity, with the distinction of having the highest number of
projects under construction7.
The EU is a leader in the offshore wind sector and has over 30 years of experience with a
combined capacity of nearly 15 GW fully connected grids across six European markets and
59GW in the pipeline till 2030. 8 Project tenders in Germany and the Netherlands have already

1
https://mnre.gov.in/file-manager/UserFiles/National-Offshore-Wind-Energy-Policy.pdf
2
https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/india/670/india-and-eu_en
3
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/india-will-add-225-gw-renewable-energy-project-
capacity-by-2022-r-k-singh/articleshow/64461995.cms
4
https://www.offshorewind.biz/2018/06/19/india-sets-2022-and-2030-offshore-wind-targets/
5
http://oa.upm.es/6735/2/INVE_MEM_2010_74444.pdf
6
https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/india/41086/offshore-wind-development-india_et
7
https://www.statista.com/statistics/264258/number-of-offshore-wind-farms-under-construction-by-country/
8
https://www.pwc.nl/nl/assets/documents/pwc-unlocking-europes-offshore-wind-potential.pdf
resulted in subsidy free projects 9, thereby making offshore wind competitive with other non-
renewable forms of energy. It would be important to note that no RE project in India has
achieved a subsidy free level. The EU is working with India to develop wind installations off the
coast of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The EU therefore allocated EUR 5 Million to aid soft
infrastructure, through structural collaborations and sharing of best practices, between
stakeholders from the EU and India including those in R&D, industry, regulation and technology.
Given the EU’s Three-decades-long experience in Offshore Wind Energy installations, India
could possibly learn from the EU through knowledge sharing. A good place to start is on port
development.
Learning from the EU on port development could help India revitalize its coastal economy by
creating industry clusters to service offshore wind farms. The offshore wind industry is expected
to experience high growth, contributing up to 8% of the global ocean economy by 2030 10. Ports
could potentially drive this growth and give impetus to the economies of coastal regions due to
an expansion of operations. Ports profit from surrounding industry clusters as they witness an
increase in both inbound and outbound container traffic. This exercise then makes the
economy of the region grow, because both the industry and the port generate employment.
Similarly, ports can serve the entire offshore wind supply chain, just like they do for
manufacturing industries, from having warehouses and training centers along with generation
of RE and its storage 11. This expansion would then attract capital and create jobs. This is how
Europe’s ports on the North Sea benefitted from offshore wind installations after a decline in
their traditional fishing operations. The port of Bremerhaven in Germany, which was a seaport
for the city of Bremen, suffered economic decline in the 1980s, only to see revival in 2001
because of offshore wind, with six energy equipment manufacturers including Repower systems
setting up base there. Esbjerg, which was Denmark’s biggest fishing harbor, now offers
specialized services in cargos.12 It is this experience of port development that India should tap
into to revitalize its blue economy. Ports in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu can have distinct
competencies, in maintenance, storage or installation and many possibilities for local, national
and international business to set up. 13Such knowledge sharing, through conferences, training
programs and personnel visits, between EU and India could be beneficial.
Sharing of best practices between the European Network of Transmission Operators and Power
Grid Corporation of India and, cooperation with the BMZ for the Green Energy Corridor project
could potentially solve several grid integration (GI) issues in India. GI has limited the
development potential of RE because of the need to maintain the economics and the reliability
of the grid14. It has also been identified as a bottleneck in the development of the offshore wind
industry in India. Among several issues that impede GI, the exclusion of offshore wind in the
9
https://www.pwc.nl/en/publicaties/unlocking-europes-offshore-wind-potential.html
10
(OECD 2016 The ocean economy in 2030).
11
(https://windeurope.org/wp-content/uploads/files/misc/Offshore-wind-ports-statement.pdf)
12
(https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1087143/europes-key-ports-offshore-test)
13
(https://northseaoffshoreports.com/)
14
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/renewable-systems-integration
current grid planning scenario and bottlenecks in evacuation of RE are two key problems 15.
Firstly, India would need to include offshore wind development scenarios in long term planning.
The lack of such experience can be tempered by learning from the EU through sharing of best
practices. The European Network of Transmission Operators meet every two years to make 10-
year transmission network development plans. These meetings witness several modelling and
planning exercises that attempt to foresee the kind of investments that would be required in
grid infrastructure in the following 10 years in the EU. Given that the EU already has extensive
planning that includes offshore wind development scenarios, it would be beneficial for India to
collaborate with the EU. Secondly, evacuation of RE is a concern due to the geographical
distance between centres of energy production and consumption, and absence of latest
technology. Therefore, policy coordination between the Indian offshore wind programme and
the ongoing Green Energy Corridor project is essential to channel a part of the financial
resources, committed by Germany through its development bank, towards strengthening the
transmission infrastructure in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu for evacuating RE.
India would do well to draw the maximum from this mutually beneficial partnership with the
EU. While lessons in port development can create large scale employment with the expansion
of several ancillary industries, collaboration with the European Network of Transmission
Operators and coordination between India’s offshore wind programme and Green Energy
Corridor project could solve grid integration issues.

15
FOWIND India Grid Integration study