India is getting to work on what will be the largest renewable energy project in the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation this week — physically — for the 30 gigawatt (GW) wind and solar power project being built in his home state of Gujarat, India.
It was not that long ago that 30 megawatts was a large renewable energy power plant, and 300 megawatts is still considered a large project. 30 gigawatts is 30,000 megawatts. I know — it doesn’t really seem to make sense. It can’t be that large … right?
Well, there’s no way it’s a single standalone project — but this is apparently a real projects of sorts (series of renewable energy power projects in the same general area) that will reportedly total 30 GW. For some comparison, in total, all across the United States, from Florida to Hawaii, we have 49.45 GW of solar power capacity installed from large solar power plants (not including rooftop solar). India plans to have “one project” in one state total 30 GW — down a bit from the 41.5 GW we reported at the beginning of the month (unless that is simply a longer-term plan). India itself had only 42.8 GW of solar power capacity installed at the end of 2019. Only 5 countries had more than 30 GW of solar power capacity installed.
In a speech this week at the event to start work on the project, Prime Minister Modi said, “This park will be spread over 70,000 hectares of land, equivalent to Singapore and Bahrain. About Rs 1.5 lakh crore will be invested in the construction of this park.” Again, as hard as it is to believe, when you’ve got the prime minister of the country starting the first foundation and saying these things, you can assume it is a real project.
Prime Minister Modi also noted that the project would create jobs for one lakh (100,000) people.
“The park will have a hybrid park zone for wind and solar energy storage, as well as an exclusive zone for wind park activities,” The Economic Times reports.
“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,” according to saurenergy.com.
India has a goal of reaching 175 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2022. That is a bold, strong target. The fact that 17% (one out of 6) GW of that would be provided from this “one” hybrid power project is impressive as well.
Related Story: 100% of New US Power Capacity Was Wind & Solar Power in October.
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