A Coal Billionaire Is Building the World’s Biggest Clean Energy Plant to Power 16 Million Homes in India

Bhadla Solar Park in Gujarat, seen from ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-2, satellite, will pale in comparison to Khavda when it’s completed

The Khavda solar and renewables park in a barren salt pan in India’s state of Gujarat is going to be big; really, really big.

Its aim is for 30 gigawatts—as much as the national grid of Switzerland. It will sprawl out across an area of lifeless desert five times the size of Paris costing $20 billion, and generate enough to power 16 million Indian homes.

In fact, this one renewables farm is estimated to provide 9% of the entire Indian renewable portfolio by 2070 when it finishes in a few years. The project involves solar panels, wind turbines, and battery storage.

“A region so large, a region that is so unencumbered, there’s no wildlife, there’s no vegetation, there’s no habitation. There is no better alternative use of that land,” said Sagar Adani, the executive behind all the powers and departments making the project possible.

Nephew to India’s second-richest man, Adani is the executive director of Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) a subsidiary of the Adani Group, India’s largest coal-power owner-investor.


It’s inspiring to see a family that has a net worth of $100 billion directing its resources, both corporate and personal, to a project of the scale of Khavda, which is set to be the largest renewable power plant on Earth.

The Adani Group plans to invest $100 billion into energy transition over the next decade, with 70% of the investments earmarked for clean energy, according to CNN.

In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged that India would achieve net zero emissions by 2070, and the scale of the Khavda project is likely to be music to his ears.

India bulls see the economic future of the subcontinent as one of perhaps unprecedented growth, with 6% annualized expansion, and 600 million people entering the middle and upper-income brackets in the next 10 years alone.

Such flourishing requires energy, and the demand in the country for air conditioning alone is expected to overtake all of Africa by 2050.On such a scale, it’s unsurprising that Sagar Adani has stopped reading and calculating numbers on the Khavda plant—they’re too big and too abstract, he says, and it sounds like that’s how it ought to be if India is going to avoid the worst of 1.5°C of warming. A Coal Billionaire Is Building the World’s Biggest Clean Energy Plant to Power 16 Million Homes in India
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Indian shooting squad for ISSF Olympic qualification championship announced

One of the Indian participants in the ISSF Olympics ongoing qualification competitions March 16, 2024. PHOTO: videograb X @issf_official

India has a chance to secure four more shotgun Paris Olympics 2024 quotas as a 12-man shooting contingent, headed by Commonwealth Games champion Shreyasi Singh and Olympian Mairaj Ahmad, was announced for the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship starting in Doha, Qatar, from next month.

The meet in Doha will take place from April 19 to 29 and will feature two shotgun events- trap and skeet. So far, 19 Paris Olympics quotas have come India’s way. Indian shotgun squad has four quotas out of these 19, two each in trap and skeet.

As per the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), this 12-member squad will also be playing in other important international events leading up to Paris 2024.

Three more tournaments will be played leading up to the Summer Olympics taking place from July 26-August 11 this year, which includes the Green Cup Shotgun in Umbria and the ISSF World Cup in Baku in May.

In June, Indian shooters will also be played in Lonato during the Shotgun World Cup. Quota holding shooters Bhowneesh Mendiratta (men’s trap), Rajeshwari Kumari (women’s trap), Anant Jeet Singh Naruka (men’s skeet) and Raiza Dhillon (women’s skeet) will be competing at the event.

India’s shotgun hopefuls are at a technical training camp in Delhi currently, which will be followed by a preparation camp before their departure for Doha.

-ISSF FINAL OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION CHAMPIONSHIP SHOTGUN 2024: INDIAN TEAM

Trap
Men: Prithviraj Tondaiman, Vivaan Kapoor, Zoravar Singh Sandhu
Women: Shreyasi Singh, Manisha Keer, Neeru

Skeet
Men: Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Sheeraz Sheikh, Angad Vir Singh Bajwa
Women: Ganemat Sekhon, Maheshwari Chauhan, Areeba Khan. Indian shooting squad for ISSF Olympic qualification championship announced
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India will remain fastest growing economy; South Asia outlook poor: UN report

FILE PHOTO: A worker arranges food packets inside a retail store in Kolkata October 24, 2013. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/File Photo
India will remain the fastest-growing major economy recording a growth of 5.8 per cent this year while the rest of the world will grow by a paltry 1.9 per cent, the UN said on Jan. 26, 2023. The UN’s World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report sliced off 0.2 per cent from the 6 per cent gross domestic product growth projection made last May without affecting India’s rank as the country faces headwinds from the global economy Overall, the report said, “Growth in India is expected to remain strong at 5.8 per cent, albeit slightly lower than the estimated 6.4 per cent in 2022, as higher interest rates and a global slowdown weigh on investment and exports”. Next year, the UN expects India’s economy to grow by 6.7 per cent. The WESP gave a positive picture of India’s jobs scene, noting that its “unemployment rate dropped to a four-year low of 6.4 per cent in India, as the economy added jobs both in urban and rural areas in 2022”. For the world, the WESP forecast is 1.9 per cent this year and rising to 2.7 per cent next year. In New Delhi, India’s President Droupudi Murmu credited India’s economic performance to its leadership”. “India has been among the fastest-growing major economies because of the timely and proactive interventions of the government. The ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative, in particular, has evoked great response among the people at large,” Murmu said in her Republic Day speech. China, which came in second, is projected to grow by 4.8 per cent this year and 4.5 next year, after a 3 per cent growth in 2022. The US economy is projected to grow by 0.4 per cent this year and 1.7 per cent the next. For South Asia as a whole, the report said the region’s “economic outlook has significantly deteriorated due to high food and energy prices, monetary tightening and fiscal vulnerabilities” and it forecast a 4.8 per cent growth year and 5.9 per cent next year.This was buoyed by India as the report said, “The prospects are more challenging for other economies in the region. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka sought financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2022”.India will remain fastest growing economy; South Asia outlook poor: UN report
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