The project is turning tracts of barren salt desert on the edge of western India into one of the most important sources of clean energy anywhere on the planet
Indian billionaire builds world’s largest clean energy plant, five times the size of Paris and visible from space.
The scale of the project, which is turning tracts of barren salt desert on the edge of western India into one of the most important sources of clean energy anywhere on the planet, is so impressive that even its builder is in awe of its size.
“I don’t even do the math anymore,” said Sagar Adani, its executive director Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL)to CNN in an interview last week.
Adani is the nephew of Gautam Adani, Asia’s second-richest man, whose $100 billion fortune comes from the Adani Group, India’s biggest coal importer. The conglomerate was founded in 1988 and has businesses in sectors ranging from ports and thermal power plants to media and cement.
Clean energy unit AGEL is building the massive solar and wind power station in the western Indian state of Gujarat at a cost of around $20 billion. It will be the world’s largest renewable energy park when completed in about five years and is expected to generate enough clean electricity to power 16 million homes in India.
The success of the Khavda renewable energy park is critical to India’s efforts to reduce pollution and meet its climate goals, while meeting the growing energy needs of the world’s most populous country and fastest-growing major economy. Coal still accounts for 70% of India’s electricity.
The park, located just 12 miles from one of the world’s most dangerous borders separating India and Pakistan, will cover more than 200 square miles and be the planet’s largest power plant regardless of energy source, the company said. AGEL.
“An area so large, an area that is so limitless, there is no wildlife, no vegetation, no habitation. There is no better alternative use of this land,” Adani said.
The two sides of “Antani” businesses
The group’s green plans are impressive, but climate experts are critical of its continued massive investments in fossil fuels.
“Gautam Adani continues to walk both sides of the street,” said Tim Beckley, director of the Sydney-based think tank Climate Energy Finance.
The Adani Group is not only one of the largest builders and operators of coal mines in India, but also operates the controversial Carmichael coal mine in Australia, which has drawn a backlash from climate change campaigners who say it is a “death sentence”.
Source: Skai
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