Offshore wind tender for Tamil Nadu likely by February 2026: MNRE

CHENNAI: The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) expects to launch the first offshore wind power tender for the Tamil Nadu coast by February 2026, following the completion of an ongoing wind assessment study in January next year.The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) has deployed a floating LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system to collect wind data over one year. “The survey will be completed in January, and the results so far have been very encouraging. The wind potential along the Tamil Nadu coast is very high,” said Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Secretary, MNRE, at the Windergy India 2025 summit here.The preliminary data indicate a capacity utilization factor (CUF) of 45–50% — significantly higher than the 37% recorded off the Gujarat coast.“With these promising results, we are confident about moving forward. Once the survey is complete, we plan to issue the Tamil Nadu tender by February 2026 and finalize it by May–June 2026,” he said.Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, pointed out that to unlock new areas, the Government has launched a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme for offshore wind projects, targeting 1 GW in the first phase — 500 MW each off Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

“Since 2021, Tamil Nadu’s wind sector has attracted over Rs 5,700 crore, adding 816 MW of new capacity, with another Rs 4,200 crore in the pipeline for 600 MW more. Our solar sector has drawn over Rs 23,500 crore in investments for 6,736 MW, with projects worth Rs 39,000 crore (for about 5,700 MW) under advanced stages of approval,” said SS Sivasankar, Minister for Transport and Electricity, Government of Tamil Nadu.