New Delhi
CNN
—
Five times the size of Paris. Visible from space. The world’s biggest energy plant. Enough electricity to power Switzerland.
The scale of the project transforming swathes 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 overwhelming that the man in charge can’t keep up.
“I don’t even do the math any more,” Sagar Adani told CNN in an interview last week.
Adani is executive director of Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL). He’s also the nephew of Gautam Adani, Asia’s second richest man, whose $100 billion fortune stems from the Adani Group, India’s biggest coal importer and a leading miner of the dirty fuel. Founded in 1988, the conglomerate has businesses in fields ranging from ports and thermal power plants to media and cements.
Its clean energy unit AGEL is building the sprawling solar and wind power plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat at a cost of about $20 billion. It will be the world’s biggest renewable park when it is finished in about five years, and should generate enough clean electricity to power 16 million Indian homes.
The success of the Khavda Renewable Energy Park is critical to India’s efforts to reduce pollution and hit its climate goals while meeting the burgeoning energy needs of the world’s most populous nation and fastest-growing major economy. Coal still accounts for 70% of the electricity India generates.
A necessity for 1.4 billion people
Adani Group’s clean energy pivot comes at a time when India has set itself some . Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised that renewable sources such as solar and wind power will fulfil 50% of India’s energy requirements by the end of this decade. In 2021, Modi pledged India would achieve net zero emissions by , which is still a couple of decades later than developed economies. The government has set a target of 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil fuel electricity generating capacity by 2030. AGEL, the country’s largest renewable energy company, aims to provide at least 9% of that, with nearly 30 GW generated from its Khavda park in Gujarat alone. Failing to transition to renewable energy is not an option, said Adani. “There is no choice for India but to start doing things at a previously unimagined size and scale,” the 30-year-old said.That could change rapidly. Thanks to rising incomes, energy demand has doubled since 2000, with 80% of it still being met by coal, oil and solid biomass. Over the next three decades, the rapidly-expanding economy will see the largest ener⛦gy demand growth of any country in the world, the IEA said. ဣ
“If India does what China did, if India does what Europe did, if India does what the US did, then we are all in for a very, very bleak climatic future,” said Adani, referring to the historic use of fossil fuels as those countries developed. His dire predictions are not dramatic. India is comfortably placed to grow at an annual rate of at least 6% in the coming few years, , and may become the before the end of this decade. As it develops and modernizes, its urban population will shoot up, leading to a massive rise in the construction of homes, offices, shops and other buildings. According to analysts, India is set to add the equivalent of a London to its urban population every year for the next 30 years.Electricity demand is expected to skyrocket in the coming years because of factors ranging from improved living standards to climate change. The latter has been fueling deadly across India, and as a result, air conditioner ownership is set to s🐽ee a sharp spike in the coming years. 💦
By 2050, India’s total electricity demand from residential air conditioners is set to exceed the total energy consumption in the whole of Africa today, the IEA said. India cannot rely on fossil fuels for its burgeoning needs without disastrous consequences for efforts to tackle the climate crisis. “If you imagine 800 GW of coal-fired thermal capacity being added … this by itself will kill all other sustainable energy initiatives happening all across the world, in terms of carbon emissions,” said Adani.