World’s Largest Solar Energy Project (5GW!) Planned for Gujarat, India
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.11.08
image: Google Maps
Now this is a world record worth talking about! Although still very much at the planning stage, The Business Standard is reporting that the Clinton Foundation is investigating developing what would be by far the world’s largest solar energy project in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Over Five Times the Size of the Current Largest Solar Project
The project would be an ‘integrated Solar City’ with a capacity of 5 gigawatts. Yes, 5 gigawatts.
The facility is expected to cost Rs 200-billion (approximately $475-million) and will produce all raw materials and manufacture all panels on site. Hence ‘integrated Solar City’. This is expected to reduce costs so that the power produced at the site will cost about Rs 4 ($0.10) per (unspecified) unit. It has not been disclosed whether the project would employ solar photovoltaic or solar thermal technology.
The government of Gujarat is considering a Kutch or Banaskanta location—in the westernmost part of the state near the border with Pakistan for those people for whom Indian geography isn’t a strong point—for the project.
Project Would Be Significantly Larger Than Fossil Fuel Power Plants
At about five times the capacity of a typical coal or nuclear plant, this project would certainly a big step in the right direction towards making solar power a greater part of India's power mix. Recently prime minister Manmohan Singh announced that solar power would be a key part of his plan to deal with climate change.
Currently, the largest solar energy project in the world is a solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert being developed by BrightSource, with an eventual capacity of up to 900 megawatts.
Solar Power
BrightSource to Build 500 Megawatts of Solar-Thermal Power in Mojave Desert
Solar Thermal Power in North Africa: How Much Land to Power the World?
Solar Thermal Test Center Opened by BrightSource Energy in Israel
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Rooftop Solar Power Installations to Receive Generous French Feed-In-Tariff
- 20% Renewable Energy for South Australia, 10 Years Ahead of Schedule
- The North Face Installs 1 MW Solar Power System at West Coast Distribution Center
- John Brown U Creates B.S. in Renewable Energy
And presumably this integrated solar city will then keep producing solar panels (PV or thermal) and sell them to other cities, right?
Oh, wait... I thought Bill Clinton was a racist (/sarcasm) per Obama's campaign. If Obama's lies are to be believed, you would think the Clintons are merely power hungry monsters who do nothing but feed their egos. But here they are quietly plugging away at saving a planet in peril.
So what has Obama done for us lately (besides reading some pretty speeches off of teleprompters)? Shame on you, TH for aligning yourself with the Huffington Post, aka, The Obama Fan Club. Thanks to the likes of you we face the possibility of having a lying, cheating, race-baiting, inexperienced, flip-flopping misogynist running our country at this crucial time.
@Ed
Or we could just elect John McCain and continue drilling for oil, and burning coal and gas. And get rid of the gas tax for the summer cutting further into our ability to upkeep our infrastructure. But I'm sure you'll be the first to volunteer to jump in the river to rescue survivors for the next bridge collapse. Let me know how that goes.
You either support going forward (Obama) or keeping the status quo (McCain). Which one is going to result in a happier, healthier, more secure future?
Let me get this straight... Slick Willy is proposing to build a power plant 10x larger than the largest solar project ever proposed for 1/5 the price? $475 million will not build a new major league baseball stadium.
Since people seem to be making random political comments in this section anyway:
I for one condemn the actions of Russian Federation in Georgia!
How's that for an out of place political comment?
Anyway, great news for the renewable energy. And like Anthony says, if the plant keeps making new cwlls using it's own solar capacity, not only will it drive the costs down, but these cells themselves will be greener, because the energy embodied in the production comes from renewable sources.
Hey guys,
Why drag trash here,if any thing is good for generating energy from renewable source, let us support it, even if it is a project by Clinton,Obama or Cheyny.
as far as I know the unit should be - kilo-watt-hour (kWh)
and its a standard unit for measuring consumption of electricity
When this project is going to start...
or this will only be on papers...