India, UK launch joint taskforce for development of offshore wind energy

NEW DELHI: Union minister for new and renewable energy Pralhad Joshi and David Lammy, the deputy prime minister of UK, launched a taskforce for the development of offshore wind energy in India on Wednesday.

The task force will have representatives from India and the UK, and a representative from Denmark, which has been at the forefront of the offshore wind sector since early 1990s. The taskforce will hold its first meeting next week, Joshi told reporters.

“The United Kingdom has demonstrated global leadership in scaling offshore wind, from early-stage deployment to large commercial markets with mature supply chains. India brings scale, long-term demand and a rapidly growing clean energy ecosystem,” the minister said at the launch event.

Joshi said the India-UK Offshore Wind Taskforce has been constituted under the India-UK Vision 2035 for coordination on India’s offshore wind ecosystem.

He said both the countries can together focus on three pillars—first, ecosystem planning and market design, which would include refining seabed leasing frameworks, aligning bidding trajectories with grid readiness and ensuring revenue certainty mechanisms that are credible and transparent; second, infrastructure and supply chains which would involve port modernization, local manufacturing of foundations, towers, blades and cables, specialized vessels and skilling for marine operations; and third, financing and risk mitigation.

Measures to boost financing and mitigate risk would include blended finance structures, early-stage de-risking instruments and mobilization of long-term institutional capital, Joshi said.

“Offshore wind must also be integrated with transmission planning, storage solutions and emerging coastal green hydrogen clusters,” he added.

Lammy said: “We already have in the UK the second-largest market for offshore wind in the world and recently we held Europe’s biggest auction of offshore wind, securing 8.4GW of new capacity. This taskforce is important. It’s important in catalyzing these initial offshore wind projects.”

The UK completed its Allocation Round 7 (AR7) tender in January, awarding 8.4GW of new offshore wind capacity, the largest in the history of Europe.

Bilateral trade

The move enhances bilateral ties between India and the UK on the energy front. It comes after the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) signed last year improved access to the British market for India-made solar modules and wind turbines. The FTA that concluded on 6 May promised to unlock major economic gains for India by eliminating tariffs on 99% of Indian exports, covering almost 100% of trade value, as both countries aim to double bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030.

Offshore wind projects get higher quality wind and enable more efficient energy conversion due to the absence of obstructions at sea. However, it is way more capital intensive than onshore wind projects and the cost of power from these projects is much higher than other renewable sources of power, which has rendered the sector non-viable and a non-starter in India so far.

Given that offshore wind farms need to be set up on the seabed, the technology and infrastructure involved is more complex and such projects require higher gestation periods.

The Centre notified the ‘National Offshore Wind Energy Policy’ in October 2015, but projects under this failed to take off, given the high investments and lack of economic viability. In the budget for FY25, the government announced viability funding for setting up 1GW of offshore wind capacity. Initially, the government plans to develop offshore wind projects off the coasts of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Offshore wind energy is expected to be one of the key drivers for meeting net zero emission targets and the ambitious goal of installing 500GW of non-fossil power capacity by 2030. According to the ministry of new and renewable energy, India has the potential of 70GW of offshore wind generation.

India ranks 4th in onshore wind installed capacity, after China, the US and Germany. However, offshore wind has not taken off so far in the country.

“To truly kickstart offshore wind in India, the government’s approach must evolve, building on early groundwork through a blend of domestic innovation and global best practices,” Ember, a UK-based think tank focused on energy transition, said in a November 2025 report. “The priorities are clear: craft targeted incentives for first-of-a-kind projects, catalyze domestic supply chains and translate them into bankable projects that can come to life.”