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

Read More........ → March 26, 2024

World's first hands-free smartphone for the disabled

An Israeli company has built the world's first completely hands-free smartphone for the physically challenged. The smartphone, developed by start-up Sesame Enable, is designed for people with spinal cord injuries, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cerebral palsy or other disabilities that affects the use of hands and arms, The Times of Israel reported. The Sesame is an Android smartphone that is equipped with proprietary head-tracking technology. An advanced computer vision algorithm and the phone's front-facing camera track user's head movements and allow them to control a cursor on screen. The cursor is essentially a virtual finger that let users do what others can with a regular smartphone. The $1,000-phone
recently won a "Verizon Powerful Answers' Award" with $1 million (roughly Rs. 6  crores) in prize money. Its developer Giora Livne, who himself is physically challenged, now plans to give away about 30 Sesame smartphones to people with disabilities nominated by their peers. "My life quality jumped from the Stone Age to the smartphone age," Livne was quoted as saying. Livne came up with the idea after seeing a TV demonstration for a game controlled with head movements. With a background in electrical engineering, he recognised the technology's potential to help him, and others. Source: Article

Read More........ → February 26, 2015

Sensex hits new record high of 22,812; Nifty at 6,827

The benchmark BSE Sensex today soared to a new record high of 22,812.36 in opening trade on sustained foreign capital inflows and tracking positive domestic cues including robust corporate earnings. The NSE index Nifty also rose 9.55 points, or 0.14 per cent, to trade at a fresh high of 6,827.20, surpassing the previous intra-day high of 6,825.45 reached yesterday. The 30-share index, which had gained over 487 points in the previous two sessions, climbed to another record of 22.812.36 by rising 47.53 points, or 0.20 per cent. All the sectoral indices, led by realty and capital goods, were trading in positive territory with gains up to 0.72 per cent. Brokers said sustained buying by funds and retail investors, driven by encouraging fourth quarter earnings by bluechip companies and positive economic factors, helped the Sensex and Nifty to scale life-time highs. The BSE realty sector index gained the most by rising 0.72 per cent, while capital goods sector index up 0.60 per cent. In the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.30 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.24 per cent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.25 per cent higher in yesterday's trade on the back of strong corporate earnings this season. Source: mydigitalfc.com

Read More........ → April 22, 2014