Wind power to get Rs 380 crore subsidy

Mumbai: The government will offer Rs 380 crore ($81 million) in incentives to wind power projects that feed into the national grid, a move that may attract large companies. 

    "We are implementing the generation-based incentive (GBI) scheme for grid interactive wind power producers from Thursday," said Farooq Abdullah, Union minister for new and renewable energy. 
    "This would definitely give boost to wind power producers in the country and help cutting carbon emission," he said, addressing an industry event. 
    India is ranked fourth in the world after Germany, Spain and the United States in grid-connected wind projects, with 9,587 megawatt (MW) of capacity in November 2008 that fed over 54 billion units of electricity to the grid, official data showed. 
    Wind power projects will be given 50 paise for each unit of power fed into the grid with a ceiling of Rs 62 lakh per MW for a minimum 4 years and maximum 10 years, the ministry of new and renewable energy said in a statement on its website. 
    The subsidy will be for projects of up to 4,000 MW until 2012, it said. This looks better than an existing tax benefit scheme because it provides direct cash benefits to the developers, Bhargav Buddhadev, analyst at Noble group, said. "It will now attract genuine utility size players to enter into wind farm development," he said. 
    Most of the wind projects are in small private hands, but large companies such as Tata Power have plans to diversify into the energy source. Wind turbine maker Suzlon could also expect more orders, analysts said. Buddhadev also said the incentive would increase the internal rate of return by at least 3-4% for a project. AGENCIES