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The Present study focuses on the impact of various factors on the growth of wind power generation in seven most wind energy prone states of India, that contain 97 % of India’s total wind power potential. The impact of state-wise policy parameters Feed-in Tariff (FIT) rate, Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO) and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) are evaluated in terms of aggregate policy indices that indicate the likelihood of wind power deployment in that state, through multivariate statistical analysis. The wind energy technology with reference to wind turbine specific policies, scaling of the project, the impact of hybrid policy, grid-related technological advancements and the improvement of capacity utilization factor (CUF) are discussed. Further, the impact of per capita net domestic product (PCNDP) and power demand-supply scenario are assessed. It was found that these two factors are non-influential on wind power growth. The outcome of the present study is that aggregate policy indices, captive/third party use of feasibility, presence of repowering policy, actual CUF obtained at the location, delay in cash flow and total available power potential are the factors that significantly influence the growth of cumulative installed capacity. This study provides an insight for policymakers for a quantitative assessment of the existing policies along with other factors and assists the project developers to compare and identify suitable locations for wind power projects in the near future. The exchange rate of 1 USD ($) = 69.38 INR (₹) has been taken throughout the manuscript.

Aiming to net-zero emissions, hybrid power generation through renewable means has gained substantial attention across the globe. Considering the stochastic nature of renewable energy resources, a comprehensive performance assessment is a must prior to project development. Present work is a novel multidimensional 6E analysis (energy, exergy, economic, environmental, advanced exergy, and exergoeconomic) to evaluate the performance of hybrid wind-solar energy systems. The analysis is performed using long-tern (41 years) high-resolution ERA5 reanalysis resource data and the mathematical modeling by means of MATLAB R2018a computation software. The long-term data facilitates reliable and precise predictions of resource availability, power generation, and system performance during the lifespan of the project. The performance of HWSES in terms of capacity factor and exergy efficiency is computed to be 9.6–35.5% and 4.7–10.4% respectively, whereas the extended exergy efficiency lies in the range of 3.39–5.79%. Hybridizing wind power projects with solar power enhances the overall system capacity factor, exergy efficiency, and extended exergy efficiency by 3.46%, 5.12%, and 2.87% respectively. Hence, the hybridization leads to superior year-round system performance with smaller power fluctuations than the standalone systems. Further, wind, solar and hybrid systems would annually reduce the Specific Emission Reduction of 1128 tone/kW, 1685 tone/kW, and 1407tone/kW respectively. The present research will be helpful to the policy-makers and the project developers in the project feasibility study of hybrid energy systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic assets play a key role in the growth of renewable power projects and depend on financial scenarios and policy structures offered by government policies. The focus of the study is to assess the impact of the existing economic scenarios and related government policies on wind and solar power deployment in India. The financial analysis of wind and solar power projects, along with parametric and sensitivity analysis, were performed based on the techno-economic parameters of recent wind and solar energy projects. Factors incorporated into the study are capital cost, annual cash flow, project terminal cost, discount rate, cost of capital, tax rate, capacity factor and technological degradation factor. The results show that the values of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) calculated for recent wind and solar projects are ₹4.89/kWh ($0.0698/kWh) and ₹4.05/kWh ($0.0578/kWh), respectively, which can be reduced to ₹2.36/kWh ($0.0337/kWh) and ₹2.12/kWh ($0.0303/kWh) through proper amendments to the existing policy, an improved financial framework and technological enhancements. The study will be beneficial to policymakers and project developers, helping to boost the future deployment of wind and solar power projects. (Note: USD ($) was converted to Indian rupee (₹) at an exchange rate of 1$ = 70₹ throughout the paper.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]