In the desert along the Pakistan border, billionaire Gautam Adani is constructing the world's largest renewable energy park, a move aimed at securing his wealth as he looks to transition away from coal.
Gautam Adani's diverse business empire, spanning ports, airports, media, and energy, briefly elevated him to the position of the world's second-richest individual in 2022, with a staggering $154 billion fortune. However, just a year earlier, his companies faced allegations of a "bold stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme" by the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, resulting in a significant drop in their market value, which exceeded $150 billion. Subsequently, Adani's companies have managed to regain a significant portion of their earlier losses.
Sagar Adani, Gautam's nephew and executive director of Adani Green Energy, told AFP that the project's teams are working "at an accelerated pace". When completed in 2027, the $2.3-billion Khavda Renewable Energy Park will cover 726 square kilometres (280 square miles) -- nearly the size of New York City. The objective of the park is to achieve a remarkable capacity to produce 30 gigawatts of both solar and wind energy. This amount of energy would be sufficient to supply power to the residences of approximately 18 million individuals, surpassing the combined populations of London and New York.