Kafda, Gujarat:

A narrow runway with not even an air traffic controller to guide incoming planes and whose only infrastructure is a portable toilet and a makeshift office inside a shipping container, located on a few miles of barren land bordering Pakistan, isn’t too bad. Could be the gateway to Pakistan. The world’s largest renewable energy park.

In December 2022, Gautam Adani, then the second richest man in the world and head of the Adani Group, used a small plane to reach this barren area with no password for the first time. The airport runway was even smaller, so he got name. A village 80 kilometers away.

Due to the high salt content of the soil, the land barely contains any vegetation, let alone any habitation. But the region has solar radiation second only to Ladakh and wind speeds five times that of the plains, making it the country’s second-best idle site for renewable energy parks.

An 18-kilometer drive from the airport through dusty, arid landscapes is the site of his team’s Khavda Renewable Energy Park, which covers 538 square kilometers, about five times the size of Paris.

Adani executives said that when Adani first arrived in Kafda, he joked about whether anyone could find a mosquito in the area.

But since then, his team has not only laid out solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity and windmills that harness wind speeds of 8 meters per second, but also built settlements for workers and set up desalination plants to create brine from the ground. Utilities such as portable and mobile phone repair shops are drawn out at 700 metres.

Vneet Jaain, managing director of Adani Green Energy Ltd, India’s largest renewable energy company, said the company will invest around Rs 150 crore to produce 30 MW of clean power at Khavda in Kutch, Gujarat.

“We have just commissioned 2,000 MW (2 GW) of capacity in Khavda and plan to add 4 GW in the current financial year (financial year ending March 2025) and 5 GW every year thereafter,” he said.

The airport is used several times a week to transport group executives from Mundra or Ahmedabad.

The Air Traffic Controller or ATC, about 160 kilometers from Bhuj, is the last guidance station for aircraft heading to Kafda. But its flight range can only reach the “Tent City”, and the pilot has to complete the last section of about 80 kilometers almost on his own, including landing.

“We landed using visual aids and aircraft navigation system. During take-off, we communicated the plan to Bhuj over phone,” said the pilot flying the Adani Group aircraft.

The outer edge of the energy park is just one kilometer from the international border with Pakistan. The one kilometer long buffer zone is managed by the BSF.

Executives said the airport was built in just 35 days and even tractors in the area had to be modified so they could work on land that is less prone to absorbing water.

The area also faces a series of challenges: severe sandstorms from March to June, no communication and transportation infrastructure, the nearest habitable zone is 80 kilometers away, water does not penetrate into the soil during the rainy season, and even the groundwater is salty, and it is a restricted area.

Executives said that while some workers are coming from Khavda village, accommodation is being built to accommodate 8,000 workers.

Adani Group’s renewable energy plan is the most ambitious of any business in the country, with a target of generating 500 gigawatts of electricity from non-fossil sources by 2030 as part of a wider plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.

They said Khavda would generate 81 billion units at its peak and could power entire countries including Belgium, Chile and Switzerland.

Mr. Jaain said Khavda’s planned 30 GW of power generation would include 26 GW of solar power and 4 GW of wind power.

AGEL’s existing operating portfolio includes 7,393 MW of solar, 1,401 MW of wind and 2,140 MW of wind and solar hybrid generation capacity.

Although the Khavda region has solar radiation intensity of up to 2,060 kWh/m2 and has one of the best wind resources in India with wind speeds of up to 8 meters per second, sandstorms are frequent and solar panels need to be cleaned multiple times a day.

Executives said the project will fully cover waterless robotic modular cleaning systems. The Khavda land belongs to the government, which leased the land to the Adani Group for 40 years.

Over the past five years, Adani Green has conducted geotechnical surveys, seismic studies, Cambridge centrifuge studies, resource assessments and land studies, environmental and social impact assessments (ESIA), environmental and social due diligence ( ESDD) as well as detailed feasibility studies, etc. should be conducted before starting to develop the site.

Construction begins in 2022. Integrated infrastructure development work includes construction of 100 km of roads, 50 km of drainage system, setting up of desalination plants and 3 reverse osmosis (RO) plants with a total capacity of 70 m3/hour to meet drinking water needs, project personnel, laying of fiber optic cables 180 km for connections and concrete batching plants.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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