Journal of Energy Bioscience 2012, Vol.3, No.1, 1-12
1
Research Report Open Access
Prospects and Challenges of Decentralized Wind Applications in the
Himalayan Terrain
T.V. Ramachandra
1,2,3
,
Gautham Krishnadas
1
1.
Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore 560012, India;
2.
Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India;
3.
Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (C
i
STUP), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
Corresponding author email:
,
;
Authors
Journal of Energy Bioscience, 2012, Vol.3, No.1 doi: 10.5376/jeb.2012.03.0001
Received: 10 Sep., 2012
Accepted: 12 Sep., 2012
Published: 30 Sep., 2012
Copyright: © 2012 Ramachandra T.V. and Krishnadas G This article was first published in Molecular Plant Breeding in Chinese, and here was authorized to
translate and publish the paper in English under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Ramachandra and Krishnadas, 2012, Prospects and Challenges of decentralized wind applications in the Himalayan Terrain, Journal of Energy Bioscience,
Vol.3, No.1 1-12 (doi: 10.5376/jeb.2012.03.0001)
Abstract
Wind energy has the potential to meet energy needs in remote areas. Exploitation of wind resource requires prospecting at
the regional levels to assess the technical feasibility for small-scale wind applications. In situations of sparse primary data (surface
wind), synthesised wind data based on prudent models are helpful. The current study focuses on the prospects of wind energy in the
federal state of Himachal Pradesh, India, characterized by undulating terrain. Three synthesised wind data were collected based on
physiographical understanding of the region and validated with long term surface wind measurements available for limited locations.
The most representative synthesised wind data were re-validated using statistical methods and seasonal wind profiles were mapped
through geospatial techniques. Variations of seasonal wind speeds in the region were consistent with surface measurements and
highest range of 1~3.25 m/s was observed in the monsoon season. Large spatial influences of the elevation gradient were observed in
the seasonal wind profiles. The high elevation zone (including Lahual Spiti, Kinnaur, Kullu and Shimla districts) in Himachal
Pradesh have relatively higher wind speeds (> 2 m/s) during all seasons. These districts were identified as suitable candidates for
detailed wind exploration. Wind potential in Himachal Pradesh is observed to be suitable for small-scale wind applications like low
wind speed turbines, agricultural water pumps, wind-solar hybrids, space/water heaters, battery charging etc. Improvement in
small-scale wind technologies will provide impetus to decentralize and cost effective solutions to meet energy demand in remote
regions sustainably.
Keywords
Renewable energy; Wind energy; Himalayas; Himachal Pradesh; Small wind
Introduction
Wind energy based electricity earned prominence in
19
th
Century. This suffered a major setback with the
highly subsidized fossil-fuel based centralized
electricity generation and distribution. However, oil
crisis of 1970’s and elevated oil prices revived the
global interest in wind based systems (Wise, 2000).
India has installed over 14 gigawatt (GW) of wind
power systems since then and stands fifth in the world
(
~200 GW) today. In the wake of climatic changes and
perishing stock of fossil fuels, wind energy is being
widely revered as a clean energy option of 21
st
century
that has high potential to offset carbon. It has been
predicted that wind energy can produce 680 TWh of
clean electricity globally in 2012, hence avoiding 408
million tons of CO
2
emissions. This also supports the
clean development mechanism (CDM) endorsed by
Kyoto Protocol (GWEC, 2012,
content/uploads/2012/06/IWEO_ 2011_ lo wres.pdf).
Nevertheless, major expanses of the world are still
deemed as low wind potential areas, while energy
demands are escalating. The overall wind potential in
India is estimated to be 65 GW although there is
enormous scope for up-scaling. Such low estimates
are attributed to the wind resource assessment
exercises that are performed with focus on large-scale
wind turbines based on high winds. It has been argued
that this trend towards large-scale wind technology
