Context: According to a new report by BloombergNEF (an international energy research organisation), India added just 1.1 gigawatt of onshore wind power projects in 2020, lowest in a decade. 
Key Points

• The report titled India’s Top Wind Suppliers in 2020 attributed the slow growth to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. 
• The pandemic resulted in nation-wide lockdowns in 2020 and caused severe disruptions to the supply chain and movement of goods and people, delaying project execution.  
• The Union government has recently been vocal about achieving its renewable energy targets of 175 gigawatt by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030.

India's wind power capacity
Overview

• India’s wind energy sector is led by indigenous wind power industry and has shown consistent progress. 
• The country currently has the fourth highest wind installed capacity in the world with a total installed capacity of 35.6 GW (as on 31st March 2019).

Government’s initiatives
The Government is promoting wind power projects in the entire country through private sector investment by providing various fiscal and financial incentives such as 

• Accelerated Depreciation benefit, 
• Concessional custom duty exemption on certain components, 
• Generation Based Incentive (GBI) Scheme etc.
• Technical support including wind resource assessment and identification of potential sites through the National Institute of Wind Energy, Chennai.

Installed capacity: Tamil Nadu , Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan are top 5 states in the installed capacity.
Potential of Wind Energy in India

• Wind is an intermittent and site-specific resource of energy and therefore, an extensive Wind Resource Assessment is essential for the selection of potential sites. 
• The Government, through the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), has installed over 800 wind-monitoring stations all over the country. 
• The recent assessment indicates a gross wind power potential of 302 GW in the country at 100 meter above ground level. 

Key Data

• The IPPs commissioned projects with cumulative capacity of 883 megawatt in Gujarat, or 79 per cent of the wind energy capacity built in the country. Higher wind speeds and land availability have made Gujarat a favoured state for most IPPs.
• The western state was followed by Tamil Nadu (128MW), Karnataka (82MW) and Rajasthan (26MW). Despite moderate to high wind speeds, no developers commissioned new projects in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh or Andhra Pradesh.
• Foreign turbine makers supplied 76 per cent of all capacity commissioned last year, up 9 percentage points from 2019.