India is one of the countries that relegated to fossil fuels to provide sufficient energy to the country. But it is a reality that this same country is transforming its energy landscape by moving closer and closer to renewable energy sources.
If at some point you had visited Kamuthi, in Tamil Nadu, a year ago, you might have been surprised by the peace of its temples and the greenness of the landscape. But to this day, this place is best known for a new solar power plant. Kamuthi, located 90 kilometers outside of Madurai, is now home to the world's largest solar power plant in a single location.
Spread over an area of 10 square kilometers, the plant has the 648MW capacity, enough to power about 150.000 homes.
What is even more impressive about this solar installation is that it has been built in the eight month period. If we compare this time with the Topa solar power plant in California, which was previously the largest in the world, has a capacity of 550 MW and took two years to build.
Funding to build the Kamuthi plant has reached 679 million and they have come from the Adani Group. The plant uses more than 2,5 million solar modules in total.
National Geographic has already made it clear in a documentary how India still relegates coal to power homes and industry across the country. But it is during these past years that the country the goal has been set to gradually reduce this dependence to look at renewable energies in a different way.
Just last year, at Paris COP21, India was one of the stakeholders for the climate agreement. The country's goal is to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels by 2030, as we indicated just a month ago.