India Takes Big Leap In Solar Development With $6 Billion Deal

India’s onward march to boost its renewable energy capacity and build domestic capacity for making solar equipment got fresh impetus when Adani Green Energy Ltd won a bid to make 8 GW of photovoltaic solar power projects over the next five years.

India imports about 90% of its solar equipment today, so this development could serve to lessen that import dependence.

Adani Green Energy Ltd, a part of the diversified Adani Group, is expected to invest about U.S. $6 billion in the project, and create 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, it said in a stock market filing, according to India Climate Dialogue.

The company is also committed to see group company Adani Solar establish 2 GW of additional solar cell and module manufacturing capacity, according to the report.

Over its lifetime, the projects will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 900 million tons, the company said. The first 2 GW of solar generation capacity will be commissioned by 2022. The project will be in various locations, including a 2 GW single-site generation project, the company said.

Incidentally, Adani Solar, Waaree Energies and Risen Energy were the top three suppliers of solar modules in India in terms of shipments in the 2019 calendar year, according to Mercom India. The three firms accounted for approximately 25% of the total market share, according to findings released in Mercom India Research’s latest report, India Solar Market Leaderboard 2020.

Along with its existing 1.3 GW of manufacturing capacity, the new contract, according to reports, will further consolidate the group’s position as India’s largest solar manufacturing facility. It will, in fact, take Adani Green Energy closer to its target of achieving an installed generation capacity of 25 GW of renewable power by 2025, which will see it committing a total investment of U.S. $15 billion in the renewable energy space over the next five years.

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Incidentally, Adani’s stated goal is to become the world’s largest solar power company by 2025 and the largest renewable power company by 2030, pv magazine reports.

Writing on LinkedIn, Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani said the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to pause, rethink, and design a new and faster transition to a cleaner energy future.

“The [clean energy] transition could lead to investment opportunities of U.S. $19 trillion in solar, wind, battery storage, green Hydrogen, carbon management and energy efficiency by 2050, making it one of the largest global industries,” Adani wrote in the post, citing a recent forecast by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Adani also anticipated a fall in the unit cost of wind power because of innovation in technology and the massive deployment of new wind projects (both onshore and offshore).

By AG Metalminer

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