Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's inauguration of world’s biggest renewable energy plant, India’s western state, Gujarat is now drawing global attention for its green energy surge. “The state is currently home to a wind power generation capacity of around 7,500 MW. This includes almost 1,500 MW of capacity added in the 2019-2020 time frame – making it the most active state in terms of adding wind generation capacity in recent years,” applauds Taiwan Times, a leading news portal of Taiwan in its article.
In 2019-20, Gujarat added the highest capacity for wind power generation in India. Besides, the state is already a frontrunner in rooftop solar energy. During the pandemic itself, Gujarat added nearly 880MW of rooftop solar power. India on track to surpass Paris Climate Goals: Foreign Policy magazine.
The article pointed out that with stronger than average winds blowing through the region in the past week [November 24-November 30] wind-generated power in Gujarat hit an average of 1,808 MW at the weekend, up almost six times the power being generated ten days ago when numbers threatened to dip below 300 MW. An almost complete drop off to less than 20 MW was experienced in the state on November 24th, although two days later 3,440 MW of power was generated – a figure that rose to 3,365 MW a day later, before dropping slightly to 2,753 on Saturday.
Gujarat coastal line lies as long as 1600 km and its geographical demography gives an excellent opportunity to the state for wind power generation. Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit Gujarat on December 15 to lay the foundation stone of the world’s biggest renewable energy park in Kutch district.
The hybrid green energy park will have both — solar capture as well as windmills with a jaw-dropping power generation capacity of 30,000 megawatts. Private players including, Solar Energy Corporation of India, NTPC, GSEC, Suzlon and Adani group will be part of the plant. Gujarat currently has wind power generation of around 7,550 MW. In the case of solar power, the installed capacity is 3,640 MW, which includes 2,770 MW of ground-mounted and 870 MW of rooftop capacity.
