Gujarat has highest potential for generation of renewable energy, says GoI report

The state of Gujarat has the highest potential for generation of renewable energy from various sources, revealed the report 'Energy Statistics 2012' by the Central Statistical Office (CSO), government of India.

The report was brought out by the CSO which is under the ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) to help planners and reserchers.

India’s energy-mix comprises both non-renewable (coal, lignite, petroleum and natural gas) and renewable energy sources (wind, solar, small hydro, biomass and cogeneration bagasse) and information on its reserves of non-renewable sources and potential for generation of renewable energy sources is a pre-requisite for to assess the country’s potential for meeting its future energy needs.

Talking about the potential for generation of renewable energy the report states, “The geographic distribution of the estimated potential across states reveals that Gujarat has the highest share of about 14% (12,489 MW ), followed by Karnataka with 12% share (11,071 MW) and Maharashtra with 11% share (9596 MW), mainly on account of wind power potential.”

The report estimated total potential for renewable power generation in the country at 89760 MW by end of financial year 2010-11.

The report estimates Gujarat’s potential for generating wind power at 10,609 MW, small hydro power at 197 MW, Biomass Power at 1,221 MW, cogeneration bagasse at 350 MW and waste to energy at 112 MW.

However, when it comes to installed capacity of grid interactive renewable power Gujarat does not figure in the top three.

It is below Tamil Nadu which has highest installed capacity of grid connected renewable power (6500 MW) followed by Maharashtra (3005 MW) and Karnataka (2882 MW), mainly on account of wind power.

Gujarat has 2197 MW of installed capacity of grid interactive renewable power as of year ended March 2011. This is however, jump of 17 per cent compared to the previous year.

The total installed capacity of grid interactive renewable power, had gone up to 19971 MW in 2010-11 a growth of 18.75per cent compared to previous year. Out of the total installed generation capacity of renewable power as on year ended March 2011 wind power accounted for about 71%, followed by small hydro power (15.2%) and Biomass power (13.3%).