41.5 Gigawatt Hybrid Wind & Solar Power Park Planned In India
The news out of India concerning wind and solar power has been bipolar, to say the least. India set an ambitious target of 175 gigawatts (GW) of new wind and solar power to be completed by 2022. India certainly is not meeting that goal on a linear timeline. Of course, the adoption of wind and solar is not going to occur linearly. The consensus has been that if India misses the target, it will not be by much, as the prices of wind and solar continue to plummet.
Solar is now ‘cheapest electricity in history’, confirms @IEA https://t.co/HdvSn8lDTP #renewables #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/PQwmy8Q59D
— World Economic Forum (@wef) October 18, 2020
During political campaigns, even higher targets have been discussed, but much has been lost in translation. Due to the somewhat uncertain nature of doing business in India, the contract prices for wind and solar have remained relatively high compared with more developed countries. One thing for certain, though, is that prior to COVID-19, the Indian economy was developing at breakneck speed, and India still plans to be hungry for power. The government has vowed to bring more reliable power to its citizens. Thankfully, we finally have some Indian solar and wind news that we can sink our teeth into.
A hybrid power plant with 41.5 GW worth of wind and solar! For perspective, that is almost as much solar as is currently installed in the entire United States. This hybrid wind and solar power park* is being approved for the Kutch district in the Indian state of Gujarat. (*It’s perhaps better to call this a combination of various solar & wind power parks.)
According, to saurenergy.com, “Firms getting land allocation include SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India), NTPC, GIPCL, GSEC, Adani Power and Suzlon, which are expected to get land for their 23000 MW, 5000 MW, 2500 MW, 3500 MW, 3500 MW and 4000 MW solar and wind power generation projects respectively.”
Hybrid projects are making more and more sense as renewables reach higher levels. The two are yin and yang, and the choreography is increasingly ideal for meeting power demands.
This short 3-minute video below wonderfully illustrates how well wind and solar complement each other. The video is an oldie but a goodie. I recommend saving it for the next time you debate renewable energy naysayers — who seem to always complain the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow.
Editor’s note: That video came out in 2014! It seems like just yesterday. Time flies, but what’s important here is the argument is basically timeless, and as helpful now as it was in 2014 — or even more so.
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