"Largest Green Energy Project in the World" (13 GW) being Planned in India


Step over Siemens, Airvoice Group and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam are now planning what they say would be the “largest green energy project in the world” in India.

Airvoice Group is an Indian mobile phone and commodity export firm, and it seems to see where the money is going to be in the future — in clean energy. It recently formed a joint venture with public body Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam in order to invest $50 billion in a major clean energy project (perhaps the world’s largest) over the next 10 years. It wants to build 13 GW worth of wind and solar power capacity in a rural area of Karnataka in southwest India.

The majority of the planned capacity would be from solar photovoltaics — 10 GW. And the remaining 3 GW would be from wind farms.

The first phase will be 100 MW of solar and 200 MW of wind capacity and it is expected to be commissioned in the next 36 months.

“We have identified 12 high potential sites in Karnataka for the solar energy project,” Kapoor told the Hindustan Times. The company has identified another four districts in Karnataka where it plans to set up the 3 GW of wind farms.

“Tendering for turbines will start in the next 20-25 days. We are in talks with several companies, including Eurowinds and Suzlon for sourcing our turbines,” Kapoor said.

Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam is, itself, a joint venture between the governments of India and the district of Himachal Pradesh. It will have 48% equity in the new company.

Of course, a 13 GW project would blow away the largest solar and wind projects in the world today, but it is still smaller than the 20 GW wind power project China is working on. Nonetheless, as they get built over the next 10 or 20 years or so, the title could get passed back and forth.

Will the US Congress continue to wait on strong clean energy legislation while India, China and others start their engines?

Source: BusinessGreen & the Hindustan Times

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