The Clinton Climate Initiative, a programme of the William J Clinton Foundation, set up by the former US President Bill Clinton, has decided to invest Rs, 50,000 crore in setting up the world’s largest solar power plant with a power generation capacity of over 3000 mw. The proposed solar energy park stretching up to over 5,000 hectares is being established across Banaskantha, Patan, Surendranagar and Kutch districts of Gujarat along the India-Pakistan border belt.

According to available reports, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was recently signed between Gujarat government and Ira Magaziner, the Chairman of the Clinton Climate Initiative, Ira Magaziner. The proposed park, which has been planned to harness otherwise barren and infertile desert land for developing energy security, would serve as a concentrated zone of solar energy development in the state and would house solar power generation plants, manufacturing units and R&D facilities. The Individual solar plants would be constructed on the land in clusters with a predictable timeline, sharing common transmission and infrastructure.

As per the agreement, the state government would facilitate identification of land and create the necessary infrastructure for setting up the project in coordination with CCI. It would invite national and international developers to set up these plants on chargeable basis on the infrastructure created for the purpose and the power generated would be purchased by the state power utilities. The power plant would generate over 5,200 million units of energy reducing carbon-dioxide emission to the extent of 5.2 million tons annually and create employment opportunities for over 20,000 locals.