By next year, India will be the world’s third biggest solar market

Estimated to produce enough electricity to power 150,000 homes, the largest solar power plant has just been completed in Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu. With 2.5 million individual solar modules, the project cost $ 670 million and adds 648 MW to the country’s generating capacity. The plant cleans itself by a robotic system and took only eight months to complete.

The plant was built by Adani Green Energy, part of the Adani Group and was formally dedicated to the nation. “The plant is set up at Kamuthi, Ramanathapuram, in Tamil Nadu with an investment of Rs 4,550 crore. It is part of the state government’s ambitious target of generating 3,000 MW as per the solar energy policy unveiled by the government in 2012,” said a company statement. Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group also said that a plant of this magnitude reinstated the country’s ambition of becoming one of the leading green energy producers in the world.

The power plant has formally been dedicated to the nation

After this plant, India has become one of the few countries to generate more than 10 GW of solar power and is expected to become the third biggest solar market in the world. The first two being China and the United States. Before this plant was completed, the largest solar plant was the Topaz Solar Farm in California which was completed two years ago with a capacity of 550MW.

Despite the Tamil Nadu plant generating such a massive amount of power, the country’s renewable energy targets still have a long way to go, as it aims at powering 60 million homes with solar power by 2022. It also has the lofty goal of producing 40 per cent of its power from non-fossil fuels by 2030.