Biggest solar parks in the world are now being built in India
PAVAGADA, India – Weeds poke listlessly from the flat, rocky earth as the temperature climbs to the mid-90s. On a cloudless March afternoon, the blue horizon stretches out uninterrupted, as if even birds are too weary to fly.
On this unforgiving patch of southern India, millions of silver-gray panels glimmer in the sun, the start of what officials say will be the biggest solar power station in the world.
When completed, the Pavagada solar park is expected to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 700,000 households – and the latest milestone in India’s transition to generating more green energy.
Long regarded as a laggard in the fight against climate change, India is building massive solar stations at a furious clip, helping to drive a global revolution in renewable energy and reduce its dependence on coal and other carbon-spewing fossil fuels blamed for warming the planet.
While the Trump administration abandons the Paris agreement on fighting climate change and pledges to revive the U.S. coal industry, India this month hosted the inaugural conference of the International Solar Alliance, an organization launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the aim of raising $1 trillion to promote solar generation and technology in 121 countries.
Thanks to low-cost solar panels and government incentives for renewable energy, India surged past Japan last year to become the world’s third-biggest market for solar power, after China and the United States. Modi has called for generating 100 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2022 – nearly 30 times what it had three years ago, and equivalent to the entire energy output of Spain.
“It’s pretty inspiring,” said Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “The U.S. and India have sort of swapped places, and Modi is now becoming a global statesman for renewable energy and solar.”
India’s need for green energy is obvious. With an economy expanding at roughly 7 percent annually, and ambitions to bring electricity to hundreds of millions who still lack it, India must pump up solar and wind power dramatically in order to meet its commitments under the Paris agreement.