Offshore Wind Farm in Gokarna

The blackout in India that left 600 million people without electricity on July 30 and 31, 2012 is the worst power outage incident since the time of Thomas Alva Edison. It raised international concerns about Indias ability to advance in the new global economy based on technology. The most amazing thing, the cause of blackout was not known for some time. What happened to the large cult of Indias engineers and proudly publicized technological growth? India has been busy in outsourcing engineers and has become oblivious of its own much needed infra structure and energy supply. Because of insufficient energy generation the small businesses started stealing energy from the grid and that was one of the contributing factors to the massive blackout. The bottom line, India needs more power plants. The South-West monsoon wind storms over Indias west coast from June to September and along the east coast the North-East monsoon wind blows from October to January. If properly channeled, enormous amount of renewable clean energy can be extracted from the monsoon winds. Installation of wind turbines off the west coast from Kuch to Kerala could meet the much needed marginal electricity demand for Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala. Gujarat may not be as rewarding as the other states due to the decreasing speed of monsoon wind near the Tropic of Cancer. I am not aware of any comprehensive plan for constructing offshore wind farms in the west or east coast of India. U.K, Germany, Denmark and Norway have installed 550 offshore wind turbines with 1600 MW of capacity in North Sea and they have undertaken much larger projects that will be concluded in the next two years. entire demand for electricity from Florida to Maine. A recent Stanford University study depicts, Placing wind turbines off the east coast of U.S could meet the Currently, United States is seriously chasing two offshore wind farms in Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of

Massachusetts and Long Island, N.Y. The offshore wind resources exist relatively close to the highly populated New York and New England shorelines. The initial cost of building wind farm is quite expensive. Still in the long run its efficient and is clean source of energy but its not any less expensive for consumers than the fossil fuel energy sources. According to BTM Consult, as of 2010, the total world offshore wind turbine capacity reached 3.16 GW and is growing exponentially. By 2014 the offshore wind turbine capacity is expected add additional 16 GW and by 2020 the offshore wind power capacity will reach 75 GW. India claims to have installed 11000 MW of on land wind farms which is less than 5% of that of the world (238,000 MW); however, 17% of the world population occupies India. Literally all the wind turbines in India are land based. The latest world trend is towards building offshore wind farms. As of December, 2011 India has ventured hardly on any offshore wind farm. All the power plants (mainly thermal and hydro) combined, Karnataka, India has the total capacity of 6000 MW. The people of Karnataka have been tackling severe power shortage for years. Especially during the periods of peak demand the supply falls short by 15-20%, leading to blackouts in the villages of Karnataka. The load factor (average load/peak load) of its power plants ranges between 0.85 and 0.95 which is ideally kept high to optimize the cost and revenue of energy generation. The other side of the coin is that to maintain higher load factor the power plants do not supply enough electricity during the periods of peak demand or the power plants due to lack of capacity shut off the power during peak demand in parts of the state. Karnataka claims to have plans to expand the existing thermal power plants to encounter the exasperating energy shortage. For a country such as India, clean energy generation from wind or solar farms is Yakshas (the Hindu god of nature) prescription to treat the deteriorating environmental ailments. In order to solve the present issue of energy deficiency, Karnataka is in a pressing need of at least 1500 MW of additional capacity. The cost of construction of an offshore wind turbine is 25-30% higher than the equivalent land based wind turbine but the offshore turbine is more resourceful. The construction cost of the wind farm at Gunfleet Sands, U.K which was built in 2010 consisting of 48 cutting edge technology turbines with a total capacity of 172 MW, was approximately $400 million. However, as a thumb rule, the installation of commercialscale wind turbines of 2 MW capacity costs around $3.5 Million. The Linganmakki hydro power plant near Jog Falls, Karnataka which is one of the main sources of

Karnatakas electricity supply has the capacity of 1450 MW. To build a wind farm equivalent of the Linganmakki hydro power plant, it will cost approximately $2.5 billion dollars. The wind farm would entail 750 offshore turbines with 2 MW capacity (or 250 turbines with 6 MW capacity) standing 250 -300 feet tall along the Arabian Sea coast stretching from Karwar to Mangalore. The cables can be easily brought 5-10 miles from wind farms and can be connected to the existing power grids. The additional benefit would be the elimination of cutting trees to raise new transmission lines on land. I am not in the least proposing a wind energy scheme to replace the existing power plants, as it would be imprudent to depend on one mode of energy generation. But certainly 15-20% of the energy supply can be achieved from wind and solar farms to ease the peak load strain put on the existing power plants in Karnataka. The electricity generated by a hydro power plant is always regulated due to the seasonal water supply and water storage constraints. On the other hand a thermal power plant using low calorific value coal, which is currently used in most power plants in India, is environmentally hazardous. Burning of coal discharges pollutants: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide into the environment and becomes even worse with low grade coal such as impure lignite. Asaki Hill, the legendary knoll supposedly cited in the folklores of Ramayana, is situated about a mile to the south of Gokarna, Karnataka. It is about 350 feet high above the sea level and protrudes out to the west into the Arabian Sea. The wind blowing along the shoreline glides around the hill forming a mile wide wind tunnel in the sea. It is one of the windiest locations on the shoreline of Karnataka. During monsoon season (June to September) the average wind speed is more than 15 mph. The projected cows ear shaped landmass of Gokarna funnels the eddy wind currents through a narrow passage. The crescent moon shape contours of Om beach and Kudli beach are indicatives of the high velocity gusty wind aerodynamically skimming over the elevated landmass. During monsoon the waves colliding against the hilly overhang rise up to twenty feet high. Over the years quite a few expert swimmers have succumbed to the unpredictability of eddy currents in the wind tunnel. The area within a distance of a mile across the rocky shore of Gokarna may prove to be an ideal location for a prototype wind turbine. After monsoon the wind over the waters across Asaki Hill slows down but still the region gets fairly steady wind. The Cape Wind project is the first offshore wind farm initiative sanctioned by the Obama

administration in May, 2012. The wind farm site is five miles south of Yarmouth, Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound. The project calls for the installation of 130 horizontal shaft turbines providing 454 MW capacity of electrical power. Cape Cod juts out in the Atlantic Ocean and as the northeasterly wind blows over Cape forms wind tunnels in a few places along the east coast of the peninsula. Even though the topographical outline of Asaki Hill is not similar to that of Cape Cod, the configurations of aerodynamic forces are comparable. In both cases the wind blowing from the south forms wind tunnels close to the bulging land mass. The site selected for the Cape Wind project is 5 miles south of Cape Cod in Horseshoe Shoal where the wind thrust converge from three directions. The prolific area for wind farm near Gokarna is not as large as Horseshoe Shoal but a smaller wind farm near Gokarna is certainly feasible.

Eddy wind current is compressed against Asaki Hill by the high pressure monsoon wind forming a wind tunnel right across from Kudli Beach. At the end of the wind tunnel within a mile distance from the beach into the sea would be the ideal spot for a prototype offshore wind turbine. In the case of Gokarna offshore turbine the wind tunnel would reinforce the wind force almost like a nozzle in a steam turbine. A turbine with specific features to harness the blustery wind may play an important role.

I have heard of a tiny project of land based wind farm with a 4.5 MW capacity near Gadag, Karnataka. Also there may be many other small land based wind energy initiatives scattered all around in Karnataka but not a single offshore turbine is installed even for a prototype testing. I am keen on suggesting a pilot venture of an offshore wind energy project near Gokarna where rampantly increasing tourism is in need of

stable power supply. The offshore wind energy turbines are more efficient than the on land turbines because of the steadier and faster speed of the wind on the sea surface. As the monsoon wind from the sea glides over the adjacent land, loses its speed due to the increased friction against the rugged terrains, making the wind thrust less resourceful. Wind turbine blades and airplane wings work on the same aerodynamic principle. The cross section of airplane wing or turbine blade is known as airfoil. The two main forces, lift and drag developed by the airfoil from the impacting wind make turbines rotate and airplanes fly. The airfoil design of a turbine blade mainly depends on the environmental conditions such as the varying wind velocity and pressure by time of the day, month and year. Selection of a turbine may require a detailed data collection effort of wind blowing in the region at least for 12 months. Just for the intent of an example, I am choosing a horizontal shaft turbine with 2 MW that would be conveniently small enough for a prototype case study of offshore wind farms in Karnataka and also for the neighboring states of Goa, Maharashtra and Kerala. At the current rate of electricity consumption in Karnataka, 2 MW wind turbine would provide enough electricity to a town with 16,000 residents or the turbine will be able to meet the electricity demand of 60% of Gokarna (population of 25,000). The energy supply to the people of Gokarna may not be any cheaper than now but Karnataka will be breathing cleaner air.

Raj Gaonkar, September 16, 2012