Source: AFP
Deep in the desert along the border with Pakistan, India’s most controversial billionaire is building the world’s largest renewable energy park as he fights to preserve the future of his coal fortune.
Gautam Adani’s ports-airports, media and energy empire — which critics say benefited from his ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — briefly made him in 2022 the second-richest man in the world. world, with a fortune of 154 billion dollars.
A year ago his companies were hit by allegations of a “brazen scheme of stock manipulation and accounting fraud” by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, and their market value fell by more than $150 billion.
But they have since clawed back much of their losses, and the publicity-shy 61-year-old high school dropout is betting big on making billions more from the energy transition.
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India is the world’s third-largest carbon emitter and the Modi government has been at the forefront of efforts to push back against carbon “phasing out” at global summits.
But the world’s most populous country and fastest-growing major economy needs more and more power, and Adani is building what it calls a “monumental” solar and wind project that it boasts will be “visible even from space.”
As the wind whips up sand in the heat of the Rann of Kutch desert, thousands of workers erect vast arrays of solar panels, dig foundations for wind turbines and lay seemingly endless coils of cable.
Source: AFP
Sagar Adani, Gautam’s nephew and chief executive of Adani Green Energy, told AFP that project teams were working “at an accelerated pace”.
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When completed in 2027, the $2.3 billion Khavda Renewable Energy Park will cover 726 square kilometers (280 square miles) — nearly the size of New York City.
The park aims to have the capacity to generate 30 gigawatts of solar and wind power — enough to power the homes of 18 million people, more than the combined populations of London and New York.
Adani will generate 17 GW, with the rest generated by other companies.
The project is planned to generate a third more power than China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest power plant today.
“Proud Indian”
The plan is the showcase of Adani Green Energy — in which France’s TotalEnergies bought a 19.7 percent stake for $2.5 billion three years ago.
In Mundra, site of India’s largest commercial port — run by another arm of the Adani empire — it manufactures key components for aggressive solar and wind power, including colossal wind turbine blades nearly 80 meters long.
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Source: AFP
Solar panels churn on high-tech production lines nearby.
“We are building one of the world’s most extensive and integrated renewable energy generation ecosystems for solar and wind,” Adani wrote last month on X, formerly Twitter, where he described himself as “Proud Indian. Excited to be part of India’s development story!”
New Delhi has called for ambitious clean energy projects to create 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity to meet half of its energy needs by 2030.
Adani — who dismissed Hindenburg’s accusations as “maliciously scandalous” — said he would invest about $100 billion in that energy transition.
When fully operational, Adani’s renewable energy park will account for a quarter of India’s current wind and solar capacity.
But India also plans to sharply increase its coal-based generation capacity and vows to become carbon neutral only by 2070, two decades later than many countries.
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“It reflects the aspirations of India”
Political opponents have often accused Modi of supporting Adani’s rapid rise, allowing the billionaire to unfairly win contracts and avoid proper regulatory oversight.
Both men are from the western state of Gujarat, and Adani has often praised the prime minister’s policies.
Ashok Malik, from consultancy Asia Group, said the Adani Group “sits on very strong assets” and “reflects India’s aspirations, hopes and strategy”.
Source: AFP
Malik said Adani, like all Indian conglomerates and major multinationals in the country, is “broadly aligned” with the government’s economic strategy.
“It makes perfect sense for a company that invests solely in India’s energy sector to start looking at clean and renewable energy sources to shift away from coal — although coal will not disappear completely,” Malik told AFP.
At the energy park, workers in hats and neon jackets wrap their faces in cloth to protect themselves from the biting sand and hot sun.
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A manager, who was not authorized to speak to the media, said the conditions were “challenging” but the scale of the construction was “awe-inspiring”.
The site is about 75 kilometers (47 miles) from the nearest village and about six kilometers from the heavily militarized border with nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Such large projects often have a heavy environmental footprint, but local environmentalist Mahendra Bhanani said that while he would like a study to be conducted on its impact, the energy park is far from human settlements and biodiversity hotspots.
“Solar energy is better than many polluting chemical industries,” he said.
Source: AFP