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Repowering policy
What it is
Replacing old, small wind turbines at established sites with fewer, much larger modern machines. Many Indian wind sites were developed in the 1990s and 2000s with sub-megawatt turbines occupying the country's windiest land
Policy provides for repowering with incentives, but requires resolving existing PPAs, land leases and ownership
Impact on industries
- Unlocks the best wind resource in the country - Class I sites are already occupied by obsolete machines generating a fraction of what modern turbines would
- Needs no new land or fresh evacuation approvals in principle, since the site and connectivity already exist
- Ownership is fragmented across many small investors from the tax-shelter era, so assembling consent for a site is a commercial and legal problem
- Legacy PPAs must be renegotiated at usually lower tariffs, so progress has been slow and it remains an identified rather than realised opportunity