Adani Looks To Build Solar Power In Australia As Giant Coal Mine Does Not Get Approved

India’s Adani conglomerate is looking to build a portfolio of 1500 MW of solar power capacity in Australia and is already in advanced stages to build two larges grid scale solar utility projects in that country. The company has been facing a huge amount of delay in getting approvals for developing the giant multi-billion dollar Carmichael mine. There has been a huge amount of pushback from environmental and local groups despite approvals received from the local and federal government. The Adanis had ambitious plans to build out the whole mining and transportation infrastructure including railway lines and a port to move the huge amount of coal that would be mined from that facility. But the project is just not moving forward and even some banks have taken back their financial commitments towards the Adani Group.

Now the group is going aggressively into solar energy and is also winning laurels from the very environmental groups that are stacked against the company’s coal dreams. Adani has become the largest solar developer in India, with more than 750 MW of solar capacity built out and another couple of gigwatts in the pipeline. It is also starting a 2 GW solar cell and panel factory near its flagship Mundhra port in the western part of the country. This will not only make Adani the biggest solar developer, but also the biggest solar manufacturer in India.

I think Adani is making a smart move by shifting towards solar energy as the whole energy industry is moving rapidly towards renewable energy. It makes sense for every energy producer to develop a renewable focused strategy given that fossil fuels are dying. Coal is under huge pressure and I think that it will soon be the turn of natural gas which has escaped scrutiny so far.

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