In less than a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Solar Alliance initiative at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, the country appears to be on schedule to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels to power homes and industries by 2030. A solar power plant in Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu just became the world’s largest plant. With a capacity to produce 648 MW of electricity, the plant comprises of 2.5 million individual solar modules and covers an area of 10 sq km.

Funded by the Adani Group, the plant was built at a cost of $679 m and was completed in just eight months. It is cleaned everyday by a self-charged robotic system, Aljazeera reported. The solar power plant has the capacity to generate electricity sufficient for about 150,000 homes. According to research firm Bridge to India, the country’s solar capacity has now shot over 10 GW.

To meet its ambitious target of powering 60 million homes by 2022, India must increase the number of solar plants across the country to generate at least 100 MW. The switch to non-polluting technologies will help reducing carbon emissions, especially in polluted cities such as New Delhi. The Solar Alliance aims to raise over $1 billion in investments to increase the solar capacity and meet infrastructure costs.

(TIE)