Land acquisition and scale effect of wind energy generators: a study in Andhra Pradesh
Student name: Ms Pankhuri Gaur
Guide: Prof Kanchan Chopra
Year of completion: 2013
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: Wind Energy is said to be renewable energy, but recently there is been a debate regarding
the total impact of this energy, especially when the land used for wind farm has been earlier
forest land. Being a location-based energy, it restricts the wind energy generating companies
to use some land for building wind farms. But is it justified to destroy the land which is
already being used as forest or agriculture land and make wind farms instead. The paper
aims at finding the answer to the following question: Is Wind Energy Always Green
Energy?
This study take a wind farm which has been built on land covered with forest (eco
restoration project by Timbaktu Collective) in Andhra Pradesh. A series of sensitivity
analysis using Cost-Benefit Analysis assesses the worthiness of the wind energy project by
examining private and social costs and benefits. It is observed that the IRR increase
drastically for the project as benefits from carbon emission reduction are included and it
reduces, with a minor change, when social cost of land lost is included. The benefits from
carbon emission reduction is way more than the social cost of land lost, which makes the
project feasible at 13% IRR. Compensation for the local people is at best just 2% of the
value of power generated by the wind farm.
