An Indian Firm ascends to be the biggest solar developer in the world

It is a matter of pride to Indians that an Indian firm bags the position of top solar developer in the world. Adani Green Energy (AGEL), part of the Adani Group, a multinational company rises to the occasion meeting the skyrocketing electricity demand of the nation and became the highest developer of renewable energy. 

AGEL’s growth in a span of 5 years was solely due to a contract with the Indian government who required Adani to build 8 gigawatts (GW) of large scale solar capacity, making the total capacity to 12.3 GW. Adani overtook Hong Kong's GCL New Energy who had the total installed capacity of 7309MW in 2018.

Thanks to the infinite energy of the Sun, a million Indian homes can be powered by one gigawatt. Currently, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat is at the benefit. Adani started his first solar project in 2015, when the country’s solar target was set to 100GW by 2022. Eventually in 2019 Mr Modi announced his plan to increase its capacity to 450GW along with another raise of 19 percent in the share of non-fossil resources by the year 2030. 

The irony is that in spite of the company’s clean energy portfolio, the Adani Group has a record of damaging the environment by the transportation of coals on India’s west coastline. Meanwhile Adani is also making plans to manufacture the components as currently it imports 85% of components from China and other South-east Asian countries. 

Presently, India manufactures solar panels to generate 16GW power, and enough cells to produce 2.5GW.  The joint secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy informs that the country would require adding a minimum of 30GW of modules, cells, wafers and silicon to achieve its solar target.

Plan to build a 67 million dollar floating solar plant is also on the chart. India has indeed taken into serious commitment of making the country solar powered. Tata Power Solar Systems, a unit of Tata Power, would build 105 megawatt –peak floating solar plant on the reservoir of NTPC’s naphtha –fired plant in Kayamkulam, Kerala, a southern state of India.