India now has the world’s largest solar power plant with the completion of its new facility in the southern India state of Tamil Nadu.
India now has the world’s largest solar power plant with the completion of its new facility in Tamil Nadu.
Image Source: WikiMedia
India’s new solar power plant in Kamuthi town has a capacity of 648 MW, spread over 10 square kilometers (almost 4 square miles). The area it covers has allowed it to surpass the Topaz Solar Farm in California — which has a capacity of 550 MW — taking the title of the world’s largest solar power plant at a single location.
This project is funded by Adani Green Energy (a part of India’s leading business house Adani Group), the solar power plant in Kamuthi entailed an investment of Rs 4,550 crore (approximately $679 million). Built in an impressive time frame of eight months, the plant is cleaned every day by a robotic system and charged with its own solar panels. It is expected to power 150,000 homes.
As solar power increases, India is expected to become the world's third-biggest solar market from next year onwards, after China and the US.
Despite the fast-growing solar power industry, India will still need to increase its take-up of solar panels if it is to achieve the ambitious targets set by the government.
By 2022, India aims to power 60 million homes by the sun. It is part of the government's goal to produce 40 percent of its power from non-fossil fuels by 2030.
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Source : www.aljazeera.com
