Optimal Siting Considerations for Proposed and Extant Wind Farms in India

Wind energy in India with a 49,368 MW estimated production potential has been gaining popularity- clean energy is produced with little recurring cost. The paper first deals with the possibility of wind-mediated power supply for Chennai city. Wind Rose distributions along with associated Weibull calculations show that Chennai with an average ambient wind speed of 2.3 ms-1 is unlikely to make any headway in wind power generation: in contrast, a similar wind farm sited in the district of Kanyakumari within the same state of Tamil Nadu would reap rich dividends. The paper further analyses the feasibility of installing wind farms in India appropriately without them marring the aesthetic appeal of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites. First calculations are shown to analyze the downwind impact of a wind farm in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. Land surface temperatures (LST) retrieved through satellite imagery during the South-West monsoon season show a 3.26 °C reduction in temperature over a downwind distance of 21.77 km.