When ready in five years, the world’s largest renewable energy plant will generate 30 GW of electricity and power 16 million homes in India.
Adani Green Energy, a company in India, is turning large swathes of barren land in the western state of Gujrat into the world’s largest clean energy plant. When ready in five years, the plant will be five times the size of Paris City and cater to the energy demands of a population like Switzerland, a CNN report said.
In 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the country would achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. Although this is two decades later than the deadlines set up by developed economies, Modi added that by the end of the decade, 50 percent of the country’s energy demand would be fulfilled using renewable energy.
India must install 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity to achieve this feat over the next six years. This requires ambitious planning and execution of projects and doing the unimaginable. Adani built the Khavda Renewable Energy Plant (KREP), one such project.
________________________________________________________________________
Read more : Bird Flu Outbreak: How Safe Is It To Eat Poultry Meat, Eggs?
World’s biggest renewable energy plant
Estimated to cost a whopping 20 billion dollars, the KREP consists of wind and solar energy-generating infrastructure. The project is located in the westernmost part of the country, just 12 miles from the international border with neighboring Pakistan.
The area is a barren desert with no vegetation or wildlife, and the land barely has any utility. When ready, solar panels and wind turbines will occupy this 200 square mile (~500 sq. km.)of this barren landscape, and the project is expected to be visible from space as well.
With a total power generation capacity of 30 GW, the KREP will cater to nine percent of the projected renewable energy supply by 2030 and power 16 million homes.
_______________________________________________________________________
Read Also : As floods hit western Europe, scientists say climate change hikes heavy rain
________________________________________________________________________
A coal billionaire’s project
If the name Adani sounds familiar, it is because it was featured in a Hindenburg report in January 2023. Accused of fraud and stock manipulation, the company’s stocks tumbled and wiped off $100 billion of their value in the following weeks.
The Adani Group also operates the Carmichael Coal Mine in Australia, which climate activists call the death sentence for Great Barrier Reef. Back in India, the group is the largest importer and miner of coal. Building a clean energy plant while continuing to burn fossil fuels sounds counterintuitive, but in India’s case, they are necessary.
Currently, 70 percent of the country’s electricity needs are met with coal. Estimates suggest that India will likely grow at six percent over the near future and will see its urban populations rise.
________________________________________________________________________
READ ALSO : DOG-LIKE PREDATOR WITH KANGAROO POUCH, BELIEVED EXTINCT SINCE 1930S, POSSIBLY LIVED TILL 2000S
________________________________________________________________________
The country is expected to add an equivalent of a London to its urban population every year for the next three decades, CNN said in its report. Using residential air conditioners alone could see India’s electricity requirements supersede Africa’s by 2050. Using fossil fuels to meet this demand would negate all other sustainable energy initiatives undertaken elsewhere.
In an ideal world, all this energy would come from renewable sources. But that is not practical at the moment. So, while Adani Energy is using coal to meet the country’s current demand, it is investing in cleaner, greener solutions for the future.
The CNN report said that the Adani Group plans to invest $100 billion into energy transition projects in the coming decade, with 70 percent of these funds reserved for clean energy.
