Harness wind energy from off-shore: Swedish expert
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, NOV 22
India ranks among top five countries in the world for harnessing wind energy and Goa could do better by looking at the option of tapping this unexploited resource to add to its power generation capability, feels Prof Tore Wizelius from Sweden, a world authority on wind energy generation.
Prof Tore will be in the State for the next five days creating awareness and educating technical education teachers on tapping wind energy and how the same could be put to use for the State. Tore’s training programme, which began on Monday at the Directorate of Technical Education in Porvorim, is being conducted in association with the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research Extension Centre Goa.
The wind energy expert, who has written several books on windpower, says though there is not much potential in tapping on-shore wind energy in Goa, the State, which has a 105-km long coastline, could look at harnessing the resource off-shore like in Denmark.
The Swedish national, who has worked on several community projects, will also look at the cost-efficiency of running windmills in the State. Tore, who is in Goa for the first time, will give his stamp of approval on the wind quality in the State to gauge what quantum of this energy could be generated.
Associate Prof at NITTTRE Alan Rocha, who works closely with Prof Tore, says, “Roughly, there are 20 hybrid windmills in the State and out of these few are actually running. Hybrid means these windmills are supplemented by solar energy as back-up because wind speed on-shore in the State was not consistent.”
Prof Rocha informed that the average wind speed in Goa was 3.5 metre/second to 4.3 metre/second which can be used to operate small wind turbines. “We haven’t been able to calculate the accurate speed because there are only two wind masts, one at Pernem and the other at Canacona, which are insufficient,” he observed.
Director of Technical Education Vivek Kamat making his point said the State could look at 10 per cent of its power generated through wind energy. He also called for making available specific data of wind speed in the State.
