India recently activated the largest solar installation in the world. Built on a speedy timeline of just eight months, this solar plant is located in Kamuthi in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Having the capacity of generating 648-megawatts of power, this is the largest solar power plant at a single location. This title was held earlier by the Topaz Solar Farm in California, which has a capacity of 550 MW and was completed in around three years.
- The plant is comprised of 2.5 million solar panels covering an area of 10 sq. km.
- Once the plant is fully operational, it is expected to generate electricity sufficient for about 150,000 homes.
- This solar plant is funded by the Adani Group and has been running since September 21.
- The plant was built at the cost of $679 million.
- Solar panels are cleaned every day by a self-charged robotic system, which helps in maintaining the efficiency of the solar panels.
- With this plant, India’s total installed solar capacity exceeds 10 GW for the first time.
A few months prior, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Solar Alliance Initiative at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris to reduce India’s dependence on fossil fuels and increase clean energy production to 40 percent of the nation’s power needs by 2030. It is a great step, but many more such projects are required to meet the desired goal.
The way India is working on solar power, it is expected to become the world’s third-biggest solar market from next year onwards, after China and the US.
