A coal billionaire is building the world’s largest clean energy plant and it will be five times the size of Paris

A coal billionaire is building the world’s largest clean energy plant and it will be five times the size of Paris

Five times the size of Paris. Seen from space. The largest power plant in the world. Enough electricity to power Switzerland.

The scale of the project that is transforming a barren desert region on the outskirts of western India into one of the most important sources of clean energy anywhere on the planet is so overwhelming that the people in charge can’t keep up.

“I’m not doing the calculations yet,” Sagar Adani told CNN in an interview last week.

Adani is the executive director of Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL). He is also the nephew of Gautam Adani, Asia’s second-richest person, whose $100 billion fortune stems from the Adani Group, India’s largest coal importer and leading miner of the dirty fuel. Founded in 1988, the conglomerate has businesses in areas ranging from ports and thermal power plants to media and cement.

Its clean energy unit AGEL is building a vast solar and wind power plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat at a cost of about $20 billion. It will be the world’s largest renewable park when it is completed in about five years, and should generate enough clean electricity to power 16 million Indian homes.

The success of the Khavda Renewable Energy Park is critical to India’s efforts to reduce pollution and meet its climate goals while meeting the growing energy needs of the world’s most populous country and fastest growing major economy. Coal still accounts for 70% of the electricity generated by India.

Located just 12 miles from one of the world’s most dangerous borders separating India and Pakistan, the park will cover more than 200 square miles and be the largest power plant on the planet regardless of energy source, AGEL said.

“Such a large territory, an uninhibited territory, no wildlife, no vegetation, no habitation. There is no better alternative use for the land,” said Adani.

The group’s big green plans have not been affected by a turbulent year since January 2023, when an American short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of decades of fraud.

The Indian mining-to-media conglomerate denounced the Hindenburg report as “baseless” and “malicious.” But that failed to halt a spectacular stock market slide that, at one point, wiped more than $100 billion off the value of its listed companies. Gautam Adani’s personal wealth also took a beating, plunging more than $80 billion in the month following the release of the report.

But the tycoon has bounced back and the group is now pouring billions into the clean energy sector.

It plans to invest $100 billion into the energy transition over the next decade, with 70% of the investment earmarked for clean energy.

A need for 1.4 billion people
The Adani Group’s clean energy pivot comes at a time when India has set itself some ambitious climate goals. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised that renewable sources such as solar and wind power will meet 50% of India’s energy needs by the end of this decade.

In 2021, Modi promised India would achieve net zero emissions by 2070, which is still decades behind developed countries.

The government has set a target of 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil fuel electricity generation capacity by 2030. AGEL, the country’s largest renewable energy company, aims to provide at least 9% of that, with nearly 30 GW generated from its Khavda park in Gujarati only.

Failing to switch to renewable energy is not an option, Adani said.

“There is no option for India but to start doing things at a size and scale that was not imagined before,” the 30-year-old said.

That’s because energy demand will explode in the coming years.

India is the world’s third-largest energy consumer, although per capita energy consumption and emissions are less than half the world average, data from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) shows.

That can change quickly. Thanks to rising incomes, energy demand has doubled since 2000, with 80% of it still met by coal, oil and solid biomass. Over the next three decades, fast-growing economies will see the largest growth in energy demand of any country in the world, the IEA said.

“If India does what China does, if India does what Europe does, if India does what the US does, then we all face a very bleak climate future,” Adani said, referring to the nation’s historic use of fossil fuels. the country developed.

The bad prognosis is not dramatic. India is comfortably positioned to grow at an annual rate of at least 6% over the next few years, analysts say, and may become the world’s third-largest economy before the end of the decade.

As it develops and modernizes, its urban population will increase, leading to a large increase in the construction of houses, offices, shops and other buildings. According to analysts, India is poised to add the equivalent of London to its urban population every year for the next 30 years.

Demand for electricity is expected to increase in the coming years due to factors ranging from rising living standards to climate change. The latter has triggered a deadly heat wave across India, and as a result, air conditioner ownership is expected to see a sharp spike in the coming years.

By 2050, India’s total electricity demand from residential air conditioning is set to exceed the total energy consumption of all of Africa today, the IEA said.

India cannot rely on fossil fuels for its growing needs without adverse consequences for efforts to address the climate crisis.

“If you imagine 800 GW of coal thermal capacity added … this by itself will kill all other sustainable energy initiatives happening around the world, in terms of carbon emissions,” Adani said.

Both sides of the road
The conglomerate’s green plans are impressive, but climate experts are critical of its continued massive investment in fossil fuels.

“[Gautam] Adani continues to walk both sides of the aisle,” said Tim Buckley, director of Sydney-based think tank Climate Energy Finance.

The Adani Group is not only one of the largest developers and operators of coal mines in India, but also operates Australia’s controversial Carmichael Coal Mine, which has faced fierce opposition from climate change campaigners who say it is a “death sentence” for the Great Barrier Reef. .

“Instead of plowing billions into new fossil fuel projects, India would be better served if Adani put 100% of its efforts and resources into developing low-cost zero-emission technologies,” Buckley added.

That is not an option for now, Adani said.

More than 600 million people in India will be “middle-income and high-income earners in the next decade, decade and a half,” he said. “They cannot lose their basic energy needs. ”

Everyone would be happy if we could “have 100% of that provided from sustainable energy sources … [but]… practically, that’s not an option” at the moment, he added.

He also said that activists in developed countries, which historically have emitted more greenhouse gases, often fail to understand the huge challenges India faces to grow its economy and clean energy industry at the same time.

“I think it’s also very important to respect the fact that each country has its own right to ensure that its own citizens are treated well from an energy perspective,” Adani said.

“So is India doing little coal? Yes, of course India. But is India doing a significant amount of renewable energy? Yes, there is no question,” he added