Billionaire Gautam Adani on Tuesday said the Adani group is building the largest hybrid renewables park in the world – right in the middle of the desert – in Khavda.
"It will be the most complex and ambitious project that we have ever executed. Spread over 72,000 acres, this project will be capable of generating 20 GW of green energy," Adani says while speaking to shareholders. "And we intend to build it faster than any project in our execution history," he adds.
Adani reaffirmed the group's target of having 45 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
"Our renewable energy business, Adani Green Energy Limited, commissioned the world's largest hybrid solar-wind project of 2.14 GW in Rajasthan. Our operational renewable energy portfolio has grown by 49% to over 8 GW. This is the largest operational renewable portfolio in India. Our focus remains on producing the lowest cost green electron at scale," Adani says, adding the conglomerate is set to play a critical role in India's net zero journey.
Adani Transmission, too, is accelerating, with the transmission business continuing to grow faster than the market, says the Gujarat-based conglomerate's chairman. Adani Transmission will also take Mumbai to 60% renewable power, making it the first mega city in the world to achieve over 50% power from solar and wind, says Adani.
Adani's speech comes months after Adani Group's flagship company Adani Enterprises decided to withdraw its fully subscribed follow-on public offering (FPO) after U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the company of stock market manipulation.
"On the eve of our Republic Day this year, a US-based short-seller published a report to short our stocks just as we were planning to launch the largest follow-on public offering in India's history. The report was a combination of targeted misinformation and discredited allegations, the majority of them dating from 2004 to 2015. They were all settled by the appropriate authorities at that time. This report was a deliberate and malicious attempt aimed at damaging our reputation and generating profits through a short-term drive-down of our stock prices," Adani says.
The Supreme Court-appointed Expert Committee did not find any regulatory failure, says Adani. "The Committee's Report not only observed that the mitigating measures, undertaken by your company helped rebuild confidence but also cited that there were credible charges of targeted destabilization of the Indian markets. It also confirmed the quality of our Group’s disclosures and found no instance of any breach. While SEBI is still to submit its report, we remain confident of our governance and disclosure standards," he adds.
The cumulative profit after tax of all listed Adani Group companies grew by 82% to ₹23,509 crore in FY23. The Group's EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) grew by 36% to ₹57,219 crore, where the total income grew by 85% to more than ₹2.62 lakh crore in FY23.
