Abstract
Climate change, air pollution, and energy security are significant challenges in India. This study helps address these challenges by quantifying onshore wind resources at different relevant altitudes over India, a major global carbon emitter. A high-resolution wind energy atlas is developed that accounts for technical, climate, environmental, and social exclusions. Findings indicate that, with all but the highest wind speeds, more than sufficient area and potential are available to meet demand for all energy purposes in India by 2050 using wind energy alone. The maximum area and potential for repowering, as well as the co-locational opportunities for wind with solar photovoltaic (PV) resources, are also analyzed. The outcome is a series of maps that can increase certainty for resource planning, expedite the siting process, reduce investment risk, decrease future project costs, increase access to key data for energy planners, and drive India closer to a sustainable energy system.