By Kari Williamson

Tata Power's wind farms are in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and an additional 64.5 MW capacity is under construction with expected commissioning this year.

The Indian power company is also in the process of acquiring 20.95 MW operating wind assets in Maharashtra from Niskalp Energy Ltd, and will furthermore shortly place an order for 150 MW wind capacity to be set up in Maharashtra and Rajasthan and to be commissioned during the course of FY12 and FY13.

Anil Sardana, Managing Director, Tata Power, says: “The company is enhancing its renewable energy portfolio as targeted and today around 21% of the power generated is from ‘clean’ sources. Today our wind portfolio has crossed 300 MW and the company is committed to adding a sizable capacity every year to maintain a significant wind portfolio.”

Banmali Agrawala, Executive Director, Strategy and Business Development, Tata Power, adds: “We want to ensure that 25% of our power capacity comes from clean technologies. This may go down in the near term, but we aim to have at least one-fourth of our power through such sources.”

Micro-renewables

Tata Power has also installed two micro horizontal axis wind turbines 2-5 kW, and is in the process of installing two vertical axis turbines in FY 11-12 (5 and 12 kW in capacity respectively)

At its Mankhurd recieving station, Tata Power has installed a hybrid solar and wind system.The 2.82 KW solar/wind hybrid turbine at Mankhurd substation is a demonstration project commissioned to meet the lighting requirements of the control room.