The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

From ENN,

Wednesday, November 05, 2003
By Himangshu Watts, Reuters


MUPPANDAL, India — On the southern tip of India, the once-impoverished people of Muppandal village are thanking Varuna, the Hindu god of the wind, for blowing unexpected good fortune their way.

In the decade since the installation of the first giant power-producing windmill, towering above the palm trees with its whirring 80-foot blades, their lives have changed dramatically.

Incomes have risen and thousands of new jobs have been created as dozens of wind energy producers swarmed the village, the showcase of a $2 billion clean energy program in India, the world's fifth-largest producer of wind energy.

"In 10 years, my daily income has gone up to 450 rupees (US$10) from 45 rupees," said Koilpillai Gopal, a barber who has been able to convert his modest roadside kiosk into a glittering shop. "It is all because of the windmills."

In Muppandal, a hilly region where the wind races in from the Arabian Sea through gaps between the mountains, the price of land for a windmill has soared to 300,000 rupees ($6,620) from 40,000 in the early 1990s.

Electricity produced from wind is costlier than gas, thermal, or hydro-based units, but subsidies offered by the government through tax breaks, lower import duties on equipment, and cheap loans keep prices competitive.

With the subsidies, analysts say, the generation cost varies from...(Read on in: Clean energy brings windfall to Indian village)