The Lure of Kutch: Ambani, Adani pledge billions for clean energy in arid heartland

New Delhi: A vast stretch of barren land in Gujarat's Rann of Kutch, within sight of the Pakistan border, has become a centrepiece of India's clean energy ambitions, attracting multi-billion-dollar investments from tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani.

Adani Group was the first to unveil mega plans for the dry, arid expanse near the Pakistan border. Its Khavda renewable energy park - spanning 538 square kilometres, roughly five times the size of Paris - is touted as the world's largest green energy project, aiming to generate 30 GW of clean power from abundant solar and wind resources.

While the Adani Group began work at Khavda in 2022 and supplied the first electricity to the national grid by February 2024, Ambani revealed plans for a clean energy project in Kutch only in August last year during Reliance Industries Ltd's annual shareholder meeting.

At this year's annual general meeting, his youngest son, who oversees the energy portfolio of the conglomerate, Anant, spelt out more details.

"In Kutch, Gujarat, we are developing one of the world's largest single-site solar projects spanning 5,50,000 acres of arid land - three times the size of Singapore. At peak, we will deploy 55 MW of solar modules and 150 MWh of battery containers every day. This will be among the fastest installations globally. This single site could meet nearly 10 per cent of India's electricity needs within the next decade," the junior Ambani said on August 29.

The way he outlined the details seemed aimed at not drawing a comparison with Adani's project.

But details are easy to calculate - the 5,50,000 acres of land translates into 2,225 sq km (Singapore measures 735.7 sq km). He did not give capacity, but 55 MW of solar modules, as a thumb rule, should be enough to produce over 110 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity annually.

Reliance has neither given estimates for the power to be generated nor timelines for the project completion.

Adani had previously announced that its Khavda covers an area of 538 sq km.

The reason Kutch is drawing billions of dollars of investment is that it receives some of the highest solar radiation in India, with an average of 5.5-6.0 kilowatt-hours per square meter per day (about 2,060-2,100 kWh per sq meter). It has 300-plus sunny days per year, making it ideal for consistent, large-scale solar power generation.

Kutch has large stretches of barren and unproductive land that are perfect for utility-scale solar parks. Since the land is sparsely populated and not used for agriculture, it minimises displacement issues and reduces land acquisition costs.

It has good wind potential (wind speed of about 8 meters per second), making it suitable for hybrid energy projects (solar plus wind), improving reliability and grid stability. Adani's Khavda project is a hybrid one.

Importantly, it is located near Gujarat's well-developed grid infrastructure and strong power evacuation facilities. This supports renewable power evacuation.

The Gujarat government offers incentives like easy land leasing policies and fast-track clearances to support mega projects.

Kutch is relatively close to ports like Mundra and Kandla that allows easy import of equipment.

According to the latest presentation of Adani Green Energy Ltd - the firm implementing Adani group's Khavda project, 5.6 GW of capacity is already operational and 30 GW will be reached by 2029. There is already talk that it may scale it up to 50 GW.

Both Ambani and Adani also have plans for producing equipment needed for renewable energy - from solar modules to batteries and green hydrogen. Here too, Adani is ahead in project implementation, having started solar module and wind turbine manufacturing as well as commissioning India's first off-grid 5 MW green hydrogen pilot plant.

State-owned NTPC Ltd too has planned 4.75 GW of solar capacity at Khavda.

The mega projects at Kutch are aligned with India's national goals of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2070 and 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.