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Roundtable-Workshop:Addressing Current Risks in Wind Repowering

DATE: June 25, 2025, Wednesday | TIME: 10:00 AM – 03.00 PM

VENUE: Centre for Science and Environment, 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi

PARTICIPATION:By invitation and subject to confirmation upon registration.

PARTICIPANTS: Government departments, wind turbine manufacturers (OEMs), and independent power producers (IPPs).

India’s renewable energy journey has made notable strides, with wind energy playing a foundational role in shaping the country’s clean energy transition. Yet, a significant share of the installed wind capacity today is built on ageing infrastructure—comprising sub-megawatt turbines with low hub heights and limited rotor diameters. These first-generation machines, many commissioned over some decades ago, occupy some of the country’s most wind-abundant locations but deliver suboptimal yields by current technical standards.

Wind repowering offers a compelling opportunity to revitalise these legacy sites. An estimated 25GW of repowering potential lies in replacing outdated turbines with modern, high-capacity models. Such upgrades could double or even triple the energy output from the same footprint. However, this opportunity remains underutilised due to a combination of manufacturing gaps, weak infrastructure, fragmented policy implementation, and unresolved market risks.

Roundtable Objectives

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) invites you to a Roundtable discussion to address current risks in wind repowering in India. Anchored by our research findings: the areas of focus shall delve into equipment manufacturing ecosystem, market-based risks from policy insufficiency, and infrastructure deficits as mentioned below;

  1. Insufficient supply of turbines

India lacks commercially available wind turbines certified for high-turbulence Class I Category A sites (0.16 TI). As of May 2025, MNRE’s RLMM lists only six turbines rated for such conditions—all under 1 MW and 100-metre hub height. With more than 10,000 ageing turbines in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat alone located in Class I zones.

  1. Policy Coordination Gaps

Significant divergence of state level policies regarding timelines, sizing, financial levies that limits investment and project scalability. Power procurement is uncertain for repowered projects, with high transmission costs, reduction of spot-power markets and banking duration, further investment is hampered in projects.

  1. Infrastructure Bottlenecks

Repowering feasibility is constrained by outdated grid infrastructure. Legacy 11 kV evacuation systems, designed for 200–600 kW turbines, are incompatible with today’s 1.5–2 MW turbines.

We believe your insights and experience will be instrumental in shaping a practical roadmap to unlock the full potential of wind repowering in India. The discussion will also explore regulatory reforms, financing structures, and technology deployment pathways needed to accelerate progress.

We look forward to your participation.

For further details, please contact:

Binit Das
Programme Manager, Renewable Energy Unit
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)
+91 80933 26269
binit.das@cseindia.org

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