Adani Green Energy accelerates decarbonisation of India’s grid by developing world’s largest renewable energy project

With India’s economy due to grow almost 7 per cent this year and an environmental necessity for clean energy, the country urgently needs to decarbonise its energy system at scale. The dual challenge of satisfying the rising demand for energy while ensuring a cleaner and greener future requires extraordinary ambition and scope.

Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) is the largest renewable energy company in India, with a commitment to bringing 45 gigawatts (GW) of green energy online by 2030. That is enough energy to power more than 22 million homes. It is this scale that will allow AGEL to have a real impact on tackling climate change globally.

‘Our mission is to make green energy affordable for millions. We have plans to invest $22 billion in the coming years to meet our ambition of reaching our target of 45 GW by 2030,’ says executive director Sagar Adani. ‘Transitioning at pace isn’t easy, but our innovative approach and business philosophy shows a clear route to achieving net zero.’

Established in 2015 and listed on the Indian stock exchange, AGEL’s goal is to set the standard for affordable green energy generation and play a major role in decarbonising energy systems at scale. The company has an operating renewable portfolio of approximately 10 GW, the largest in India, and is currently developing the largest renewable energy plant on the planet in pursuit of enabling India’s transition to a low carbon economy.

AGEL’s project at Khavda in Gujarat, near India’s western coast, began generating clean energy last month. Once complete, this colossal wind and solar park will be spread over an area five times the size of Paris. Indeed, with the capacity to produce 30 GW annually and power more than 16 million Indian homes, it will be the world’s largest power station regardless of source.

In addition to producing clean energy through these giga-scale projects, AGEL is committed to turning renewable energy into a powerful economic driver in the regions where it operates. The Khavda site, for example, will create more than 15,000 green jobs while transforming the barren terrain of the Kutch region into a habitable environment for its workforce and partners.

The company’s commitment to helping the world meet its net zero targets, through the widespread adoption of sustainable solutions, naturally extends to its own operations. In addition to moving towards a 100 per cent decarbonised value chain, AGEL is increasingly deploying advanced robotic cleaning of solar panels to reduce water consumption to zero, has eliminated use of single-use plastic and is certified zero waste-to-landfill for all its operating plants. To date, the company has avoided more than 48 million tonnes of CO₂ cumulatively and aims to minimise emissions across its operations by striving for maximum efficiency and resource optimisation.

‘We are proud to be one of the world’s fastest-growing renewable energy companies but for us success is about more than output and returns,’ Mr Adani explains. ‘We want to drive positive change across industry and society. Our goal is to become one the world’s top ten companies when it comes to ESG benchmarking of the electric utility sector.’

Beyond its focus on clean energy production, AGEL is also committed to developing resilient supply chains and enhancing social and natural capital. The company is actively engaged in community development initiatives across several villages where it operates, focusing on education, health, women’s empowerment, water conservation and enhancing community infrastructure.

‘Through bold and innovative projects like the Khavda renewable energy park, AGEL continues to set higher global benchmarks and rewrite the world’s planning and execution standards for giga-scale renewable energy projects,’ says Mr Adani. ‘We are immensely proud of the role we are playing in decarbonising India’s energy system and look forward to working with partners across the globe to have a meaningful impact in the fight against climate change.’