A massive £15.8 billion solar and wind power plant capable of powering an entire country the size of Switzerland is so big it’s visible from space.
The Khavda Renewable Energy Park in the Gujarat state of India will cover a vast area five times larger than Paris, at around 200 square miles when it is finished.
Once completed the project will account for over nine percent of India’s total renewable energy power production and be the largest power plant of any kind on the planet.
It began its first input into the national grid of India in March this year.
The output of the Khavda will be enough to power 20 million homes in India, one of the world’s largest countries with a population of more than 1.4 billion.
Sagar Adani, executive director of Adani Green Energy Limited which is building the plant, told CNN India had a duty to the world not to follow others in producing fossil fuels.
He said: “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.”
Mr Adani added that his nation could not go down the route of fossil fuel power plants, adding: “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.”
The billionaire businessman admitted to the US news site that India was still “doing a bit of coal” but that is was “doing a massive amount of renewables”.
Mr Adani’s uncle, and Asia’s second-richest man Gautam Adani, said at the company AGM his firm was building the “largest hybrid renewables park in the world”.
He said: “It will be the most complex and ambitious project that we have ever executed. Spread over 72,000 acres, this project will be capable of generating 20 GW of green energy. And we intend to build it faster than any project in our execution history.”
In a Tweet on the social media platform X, he added: “Proud to play a crucial role in India’s impressive strides in renewable energy as we build the world’s largest green energy park.
“This monumental project, covering 726 sq km in the challenging Rann desert, is visible even from space. We will generate 30GW to power over 20 million homes.”
