Renewables can solve the energy problems of the world by replacing fossil fuel, and India is working to emerge as the world’s renewable energy capital with ambitious projects.
One such project is the Kamuthi Solar Power Project, completed recently in Tamil Nadu. The facility has a capacity of 648 MW and covers an area of 2,500 acres, making it the world’s largest solar power plant at a single location. In contrast, California’s Topaz Solar Farm, which was previously the largest solar plant has a capacity of 550 MW.
The plant built in an impressive eight months and funded by the Adani Group is estimated to produce enough electricity to power about 1.5 lakh homes.
The 4,550 crore ($679 million) solar project consists of 380,000 foundations, 2.5 million solar modules, 576 inverters, and 154 transformers.
Each day, the plant is cleaned by a robotic system that is charged by its own solar panels, thereby making it a self sustaining system.
India is still largely dependent on coal for powering homes and industries across the country, but there has been some tremendous change, in the way we are adapting renewable sources of energy like solar.
Condider this. Under the govt’s Ujala scheme, LED bulbs are replacing old incandescent bulbs and according to Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal, this project alone will save $6.5 billion in electricity bills for consumers by 2019, and reduce peak load demand by 22,000MW and reduce annual CO2 emissions by 80 million tonnes.
The govt also claims that India’s solar power was 2.4GW in 2013 and after two-and-a-half-years in power, it’s now at 9.6GW. The target is 100GW in 2020.
Adapting renewable energy could alleviate worsening pollution across the country, and projects such Kamuthi Solar Power Project show that we are heading towards the right direction.
