View of solar panels and wind turbines installed at Adani Green Renewable Energy in Khavda, Gujarat, October 2024. Photo Credit: AFP
As soon as the warm heat of the summer reaches its peak, our thoughts change towards the upcoming rainy season. For more than a century, the data collected by meteorological stations and rain meters for more than a century tell us that this season begins with the arrival of the southwestern monsoon above Kerala 1. June, give or lasts a week. The weather forecast has become more accurate in recent years, and it is believed that the monsoon will reach Keraly around 27 May this year.
Southwest winds traveling across the Indian Ocean, along with strong air currents passengers across the Arabian sea from East Africa (Somali current of the current), transfer moisture to our countries, refresh our senses and lighten our moods.
In today’s world, these winds also carry a promise of renewable energy. Awareness of climate change has brought the clarity of urgent need to reduce our dependence on the energy derived from fossil fuels. Indian position is especially acute. Almost 75% of our electricity comes from coal. Within the ambitious low carbon energy transition plan, the Central Electricity Office is to have 121 GW installed wind capacity by 2032 and build on an existing capacity of 45 GW.
Power plants with fossil fuels can produce electricity if necessary. Renewable sources such as wind have variations, leading to lower capacity use. Therefore, it is predicting when the wind will be in motion is decisive for the best use of investment in wind energy. The aim is to generate the maximum amount of electricity for the grid while burning the smallest amount of fossil fuels. Seasonal climate forecasts are necessary for this planning and starting at regional level. For example, the state of Rajasthan has very bad winds from October to December.
Monsoons are strong climate drivers. Cold grim monsoon winds can be foreseen and modeling as well as rain. Cities need more energy in the summer when agricultural demand is low. The energy generated during monsoons is beneficial for agriculture sector because the crops kharif (planted in June, harvested in October), occupy more electricity than the Rabi winter crop. In winds like Western Ghats, the wind turbine generates 70% of its annual performance between June to September.
During this season, however, there is a high variability of surface wind speed. The anticipation of this variation is very used in minimizing deficiency or excess in energy production. This has led to the improvement of numerical weather prediction models that work at a distinction between several hundred meters, kilometers, etc. Using such models, the National Wind Energy Institute in Chennai Wind Atlas India, a very useful tool for planning future wind farms.
What about AI? The amount of (and quality) of high -density data from radar and satellite images has grown rapidly. Thickening techniques, such as Google Metnet3, are used to integrate with measurements including wind speed, temperature, etc., from a relatively small number of weather stations. This allows the model to estimate the wind speed in areas between stations, resulting in a high -resolution wind map derived from a small amount of measured data.
This article is written in cooperation with Sushil Chandani, who works in molecular modeling.
Published – May 18 2025 05:45 IS
