Offshore Wind A Step Closer For India As Rules For Grant Of Leases Out

India’s offshore wind energy ambitions moved a step forward with the announcement of the Offshore wind Energy lease rules by the government of India. The rules, which specify that offshore wind energy sites will be provided exclusively by the government on lease, lay down the ground rules for the next stage of the process, ie, tenders for offshore wind energy bids. Industry experts expect the first offshore wind energy installations to come up only by 2030 or thereabouts, thanks to the higher costs and complexity of these.

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Due to its sensitive nature, Offshore wind will face it’s earliest challenges for every site with clearances required  from Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Department of Space and Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways before granting of the Lease.

Coming to the actual area under lease, the rules specify that the area covered by the Lease shall be specified and the Lease shall be valid for a period of three years for resource measurement and related study/survey activities, further extendable for adequate
reasons by an additional two years. Post expiry of the five years period, the Lease shall expire; and all clearances to the Lessee shall be withdrawn and the Lessee shall have to deposit the study or survey data to National Institute of Wind Energy; unless the lessee has started work to set up wind energy capacity as per the terms of the Lease.

For construction and operation of offshore wind energy project, the Lease shall be extended for thirty five years which can be extended further on case to case basis subject to functional viability and safety of the project.

The area covered under a Lease, shall ordinarily be twenty-five square kilometres to five hundred square kilometres and the same may vary depending on the size of the project.

On the cost front, applicants shall pay a yearly lease fee at a rate of rupees one lakh per square kilometre per year in advance,
calculated for each square kilometre or part thereof covered by the lease. The fee is required to be deposited within one month from the letter of demand from the Lease Issuing Authority.