According to a new study, India has potential for wind energy at 3,000 GW on onshore locations across the country.

The study shows that the wind energy utilisation with available technologies is much higher than earlier estimates by Center for Wind Energy Technology (CWET). The CWET had earlier estimated the country's potential wind energy production at 49,000 MW and increased to 100 GW subsequently

A release from the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) pointed out that following research work of Indian wind industry expert Jami Hossain, the scientists at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL) decided to test the assessment made by Chennai based CWET about the potential wind energy production in the country.

Hossain has presented his findings on the assessment for potential for windfarms using Geographical Information System Platform. His findings were published in the international renewable energy journal Renewable Energy.

In the research paper, Hossain estimated the country's potential at around 2000 GW. Researchers from LBNL, who said that the potential for onshore wind production is between 2000 and 3000 GW, confirmed Hossain's findings.

WWEA secretary general Stefan Gsanger said, "These findings have significant policy implications for India as every unit of electricity generated from wind not only saves oil and coal but also prevent emissions of CO2 and other environmentally dangerous gases. Unfortunately India is not the only country where the wind potential has been underestimated by far."