In what would mean another big push to PM Narendra Modi’s aggressive Solar policy, the country has recently constructed the world’s largest solar power plant in Kamuthi, which is located in Tamil Nadu.
The new power plant, which spreads over 10 sq km (2,500 acres) of land, took mere eight months for construction and has replaced California’s Topaz Farm which has the capacity of 550 Megawatts as the world’s biggest solar plant.
With the capacity of 648 Megawatts, this robust power plant is expected to suffice to power over 150,000 homes and consists of 2.5 million solar modules, 576 inverters, 154 transformers along with 6,000 kilometers of cables.
The solar power plant costed a total of $679 million to build as compared to $2.5 billion used for building the Topaz Farms. The project was sponsored and managed by Gujarat-headquartered Indian multinational conglomerate Adani Group. Vneet Jaain, CEO, Adani Group, proudly claimed,
Before us, the largest solar power plant at a single location was in California in the U.S. That was 550 MW and was completed in around three years. We wanted to set up a solar plant of 648 MW in a single location in less than a year.
Thanks to the Adani Group, with the introduction of this solar farm, India is expected to become the world’s third-biggest solar market from next year, after China and the US.
The goal is to generate solar energy for 60 million homes by 2022. Not only this, the Indian government has further plans to produce 40 percent of its power needs from non-fossil fuels by 2030.
These goals have increasingly been praised by environmental groups. Keeping in the mind the deteriorating quality of the air, especially in the capital city of the country, New Delhi, it is very important to have set goals to fight the problem of increasing air pollution in the country, which has become a matter of grave concern.
