Chennai, Apr 7 (IANS): The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) will set up an offshore wind energy research centre with a test bed with two turbines of over 8 MW capacity at an outlay of Rs 350 crore in Tamil Nadu, said a top official.

"We will be setting up an offshore wind energy test bed and research centre at Dhanushkodi (near Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram District). We have got 75 acres of land allotted for the project," K. Balaraman Kannan, NIWE Director General told IANS.

According to him, the plan is to install two wind turbines with 8MW or higher to study the wind profile for setting up offshore wind energy projects.

The total project cost will be about Rs 350 crore. The tenders for buying the two windmills will be issued, Kannan added.

According to him, each turbine would weigh about 700-750 tonne.

Kannan said discussions are on with Tamil Nadu's power utility for buying the power generated by the two turbines.

"The difference between the power purchase price and the cost of power generation will be subsidised by the Central government," he added.

According to the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association, Tamil Nadu has an offshore potential of 35GW. The wind power installations can come up both on nearshore and offshore.