Adani Group turns Gujarat wasteland into largest renewable energy park

Multi-billionaire Gautam Adani’s group has transformed a remote wasteland near the Pakistan border in Gujarat’s Khavda region into the largest renewable energy park in the world.

The barren land with high saline content in its soil was not fit for human habitat. The potential of the place, however, caught Adani’s attention the very first time he landed there. Although the place didn’t even have a name, the solar radiation power in the region is second only to that of the Ladakh region in India. Also, the wind blew at five times the speed of what it normally does elsewhere.

Today, the technological marvel to come up in the place is spread across 538 square kilometres. The park has 45 GW capacity to generate electricity, mainly from energy of sunlight extracted by solar panels. Its windmills to harness wind speeds up to eight meters per second. Adani Green Energy Ltd, which is India’s largest renewable energy company today, is investing around Rs 1.5 lakh crore to generate 30 megawatt clean electricity.

The park is around 18 kilometres away from a small airstrip that lacks air traffic control and was even smaller in December 2022 when Adani first landed in the place. The industrial boom in the region is expected to lead to an expansion of the airport.

Houses are being built to lodge around 8,000 workers and an elaborate desalination process is being carried out to extract potable water in the region. Essential services are gradually being introduced to turn the barren land into an area fit for living. The region continues to have its problems. Even when rainfall happens, water doesn’t seep into the hard soil. Dust storms are a regular occurrence, especially in the summer months. The outer rim of the energy park is one kilometre from the Pakistan border and the area is constantly monitored by the Border Security Force (BSF).