India - third largest in wind energy

India has become the third largest country with the wind energy potential with an annual installation of 875 megawatts (MW), a Danish consultant has said. India closely follows Europe and the U.S., exceeding forecasts of 500 MW, Denmark based BTM Consult. With a total wind energy capacity of 3,000 MW, India is slightly behind world leader Denmark that has an installed capacity of 3,083 MW. Together Europe and the U.S. accounted for 34,725 MW and 6,750 MW respectively in 2004 while India will have an installed capacity of 8,300 MW by 2009, the consultant said

Despite having a vast land with good wind potential, India produces only one percent of energy from wind though the government has made a policy to make wind energy commercially viable through various methods. States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh produce over 99 percent wind power in the country. While the southern state of Tamil Nadu accounted for 56.7 percent of wind energy production, Maharashtra followed close second with an annual wind energy production of 12.7 percent.