With a land area of 45,674 km2 and a population of 2,092,371, Kutch, also known as Kachchh, is the biggest district in India. Known for its varied landscapes, people, and cultures, it is situated in Gujarat and has Bhuj as its capital. In the westernmost district of Kachchh, India, eighteen kilometres from a recently constructed airfield close to Khavda village, there is a control room encircled by thousands of solar panels with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts (MW). Dusty winds sweep across 538 square kilometres of barren land. This area isfive times the size of Paris. It isleased out to Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) for its flagship Khavda hybrid renewable energy plant, which will see an investment of Rs. 1.5 lakh crore, no matter what Adani Group controversies are doing rounds. The landscape is packed with numerous soon-to-be-commissioned wind turbines.
Adani New Industries Limited (ANIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited, owns an integrated solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbine manufacturing facility in the Kachchh area, approximately 150 kilometers south of the Khavda plant. Situated in the Mundra Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the ANIL facility has a 4,000 MW capacity for manufacturing solar PV cells and modules and a 1,500 MW wind turbine. To increase its ability to manufacture end-to-end products, ANIL is also expanding the production of upstream raw materials like polysilicon, ingots, and wafers.
Plan to Commission 30,000 MW by 2030
Beyond the present 30,000 MW of capacity put into service in Khavda during the last few weeks of FY24, AGEL intends to commission a total of 30,000 MW by 2030, making it the world’s largest single-location renewable energy plant. The listed company’s objective is to operationalise a cumulative renewable capacity of 45,000 MW by 2030, up from the current 10,934 MW, and the Khavda plant will provide two-thirds of that amount. This demonstrates the Adani Group’s resilience and the fact that not even Adani Group controversies can bring it down.
‘Our ultimate goals are for wind to reach 5,000 MW at the very least and for the entire solar manufacturing ecosystem to reach 10,000 MW at the very least. By March 2025, we want to add 1,000 MW of wind power, and by March 2027, we will have added 2,500 MW. Regarding solar manufacturing, we can attain our target capacity in about three and a half years’, said Vneet Jaain, an ANIL (Adani New Industries Limited) board director. To increase its manufacturing facilities and serve domestic and international markets, ANIL intends to invest almost Rs. 30,000 crores.
AGEL has built many living quarters and camps near the Khavda plant to accommodate about 8,000 workers and staff. A site engineer stated that the corporation also excavated about 200 meters below the surface to collect groundwater because fresh drinking water is scarce in the area. Khavda will not be able to implement energy storage technologies such as pump storage hydropower, which are intended to mitigate the intermittent nature of low electricity supply during low solar radiation or wind periods. This is primarily due to the scarcity of water in the area. AGEL is now investigating other sites for pump storage.
Boosting PV Module Production
Mercom India’s research indicates that as of December 2023, India’s yearly capacity for producing solar PV modules was 64,500 MW, while the aggregate capacity of the shortlist of module manufacturers certified by the government and listed in the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM) is 37,400 MW. The ALMM aims to support the domestic solar PV industry by excluding foreign producers. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy put the ALMM directive on hold for FY24. However, it has been reinstated for the current fiscal year, except for projects that acquired solar PV modules before March 31, 2024.
The ALMM order will provide exclusive market access and incentivise capital expenditure spending for the local industry. It will work in tandem with the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) plan to increase the production capacity of solar PV modules. Adani Infrastructure Private Limited, another wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, Reliance New Energy Solar Limited, Shirdi Sai Electricals Limited, and Indosol Solar Private Limited are among the beneficiaries of the Rs. 24,000 crore PLI plan. According to Mercom, India could produce more than 1,50,000 MW of solar PV modules by 2026.
Unhampered by ALMM’s Restrictions
AGEL’s generation business won’t be impacted by the ALMM restriction since, according to company management, most of its locked-in portfolio of power purchase agreements (PPAs) does not have ALMM applicability. According to Adani Green, there are certain PPAs for which the ALMM is irrelevant. Nothing is wrong at all. The Managing Director (MD) of AGEL, Jaain, stated, “We may source from any place.”
“My balance locked-in portfolio of PPAs does not have ALMM applicability in about 97% or 98% of cases. I may purchase everything I want for them from China. Once more, I will receive a pass-through of basic customs duty (BCD) on that 97% from the applicable DISCOMs or the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Thus, in my business model, I don’t really need to worry about the ALMM or the BCD per se,” AGEL’s business leader, Raj Kumar Jain, stated on the Q3FY24 earnings call. Because of economies of scale, Chinese solar PV modules are typically the least expensive in the world.
Weather Monitoring Systems and Robotic Waterless Cleaning Machines
With the Kachchh district receiving the second-highest solar irradiation levels after the northernmost Ladakh district, AGEL’s Khavda plant is ideally located to capture solar power. AGEL’s hybrid capacity is in the middle of a lonely, uncultivable, and essentially deserted salt desert, just one kilometre from the international border.
Because of inadequate natural drainage, the area experiences intense dust storms in the summer and saltwater build-up on the ground during the monsoon. AGEL uses a weather monitoring station to automatically flatten the panels and galvanise the ground mounting structures when it detects strong winds above 15 meters per second to prevent corrosion. The Khavda facility will add 1,000 MW of wind and 4,000 MW of solar capacity in FY25. By 2030, the source mix will have 26,000 MW of solar and 4,000 MW of wind power. Witnessing the Group taking up such marvellous initiatives even while dealing with Adani Group controversies is incredible.
The Khavda plant also imports robotic waterless cleaning machines made by Huzhou-based Leapting Technology from China to conserve water. The installed solar PV modules are bi-facial, meaning that photons reflected off the sand or swampy ground can also charge the side facing the ground. To generate power efficiently, the modules are equipped with horizontal single-axis trackers (HSAT) systems. These systems enable the panels to alter their angle by approximately one degree every fifteen minutes in response to the sun’s movement.
Conclusion
Adani Group surges ahead with its ambitious 30,000 MW Khavda renewable energy plant, leveraging domestic manufacturing and innovative technology. Adani Energy Solutions Limited has already established a 3,000 MW capacity to evacuate power from the facility, and an additional 6,000 MW of projected capacity is planned. The Power Grid Corporation of India also intends to initiate an evacuation capacity of 19,500 MW. The company is setting an example for other companies to follow and showcasing great strength even amidst Adani Group controversies, which don’t hold any
