Enormous Solar Projects in India, UAE, & Australia – CleanTechnica

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Solar projects are an order of magnitude larger than they were a decade ago. I remember when projects started getting bigger and bigger and we set a minimum level that they had to be 100 MW (megawatts) or larger to cover them. It was time to stop covering projects below 100 MW as if they were big projects. Giant projects had become a few hundred MW in size. A few announcements this week show that we’re in a whole different era again.

First of all, we’ve got the news that Adani Green Energy has won a bid to supply 5,000 MW (5 GW) of solar power to the state of Maharashtra for 25 years. Yes, 5 gigawatts of solar power, which will come from a renewable energy park located in Khavda in the Kutch district of Gujarat, India.

Second, while it may not be as large, it’s still a stunningly huge solar project: the Al Ajban Solar PV project in Abu Dhabi has a power capacity of 1,500 MW (1.5 GW). It will use 3 million solar panels. The company behind it just announced the financial closing for the project. Here are some more numbers and details on it:

• 1.5 gigawatt (GW) solar power plant in Al Ajban province received financing from six top-tier banks and financial institutions

• 3 million solar panels using advanced bifacial technology will be installed to generate enough power for 160,000 UAE households

• CO2 emissions will be reduced by over 2.4 million tons annually

• Project company composed of EDF Renewables and KOWEPO (20% stake each) as lead members, and Masdar as local shareholder (60% stake)

• EWEC will procure 100% of the plant output.

Okay, now I’ve really warped expectations. This third and final project is insanely large, but it doesn’t compare to the ones above. Don’t hold that against it. It’s a 775 MW solar PV farm in Queensland, Australia. The owner of the project is Genex Power, while Stanwell, a state-owned energy company, is purchasing the most of the power from it. Here’s more:

• 15-year Power Purchase Agreement with Stanwell purchasing 550MW of capacity from Genex’s
775MW Bulli Creek Stage 1 Solar Project;

• Up to 800 clean energy jobs created during construction which is due to commence in early 2025;

• 5-year contract Stanwell Asset Maintenance Company (SAMCo) to deliver operations and maintenance (O&M) services for Genex’s 50MW Kidston Solar Farm; and

• Additional partnerships being explored by Genex and Stanwell.

There’s no doubt about it. Solar power plants have become girnormous. There’s more maturity in the market, there are more financing options, supply costs have come down, and solar panel costs have come down. Solar power is the cheapest option for new electricity generation across the Internet, and it has become the #1 source of new electricity generation capacity around the world. But where will it be in another 10 years?!?