Evaluation of offshore wind energy resources for power generation based on scatterometer and SAR data along the Indian coast

India has the fifth largest installed wind power capacity in the world, mainly from onshore wind farms. As on today, there are no offshore wind power farms installed in the country. However, with the utilization of onshore and the proposed offshore wind farms, it is expected to reach 60,000 MW generation capacities by 2022. A large amount of data is necessary to assess the wind potential for these future wind farms. Offshore buoys and meteorological masts are both scarce and expensive. In the present study, we have utilized QuikSCAT (2000-2009), OSCAT (2010-2014), ASCAT (2012-2015) scatterometer and RISAT-1 SAR (2012-2014) data to evaluate the possible wind energy resources along the Indian coast. Orbit wise scatterometer wind products have been processed to generate long-term synoptic monthly means along the entire coast. The monthly average wind energy density (in W/m(2)) has been computed and extended up to 80 m height (standard wind turbine height) using power law. As scatterometer data are relatively coarser and unavailable near the coast, high resolution winds have been retrieved using RISAT-1 SAR data. However, due to inherent limitations of having lesser swath and data availability of SAR, presently the study has been conducted along Gujarat coast. Then, unit capacity of wind power was computed and potential sites are identified for the wind farms. The data is very useful in identifying potential sites of wind energy in the coastal and offshore regions. We are planning to extend this study for the entire Indian coast in the near future.