India's Khavda Solar Park in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, is on course to become the world's largest solar power project by 2029, according to a report by Yale E360 cited by Grist. Spread across nearly 280 square miles near the India-Pakistan border, the facility is rapidly converting the region's white salt deserts into one of the planet's most ambitious renewable energy hubs.

Scale of the Project

Once fully operational, the Khavda site will host close to 60 million solar panels and generate 30 gigawatts (GW) of electricity — sufficient to power an entire country the size of Austria. The project is the centrepiece of India's accelerating solar drive, which has seen installed solar capacity grow at roughly 40 percent annually, crossing 150 GW in March 2025.

India's Solar Trajectory

By 2030, India is expected to double its current solar capacity as the country works to meet surging electricity demand while reducing dependence on fossil fuels. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), nearly half of India's additional electricity demand between now and 2030 is projected to be met through solar energy. Another quarter is likely to come from wind, hydroelectric, and nuclear sources.

Energy analysts believe India could become the first major economy to industrialise primarily on solar power rather than coal — a path no large economy has taken before. Kingsmill Bond, energy strategist at UK-based think tank Ember, framed the shift starkly: 'China built on coal; India is building on sun,' he said, adding that India's model could inspire other emerging economies seeking rapid growth without sharply increasing carbon emissions.

A Sharp Reversal From Coal Dependence

India's solar ascent marks a dramatic departure from its position just a decade ago, when the fuel played only a marginal role in the country's energy mix. Shortly after coming to power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pledged to double coal output by 2020. India also resisted international pressure at successive climate summits to phase out coal, arguing that developing nations still needed fossil fuels to lift populations out of poverty.

That calculus has since shifted. Falling solar panel prices and India's naturally high solar irradiance gradually rewired the country's energy strategy. Since the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the pace of solar installations has accelerated sharply. Notably, last year non-fossil fuel sources accounted for more than half of India's installed power generation capacity for the first time on record.

A Blueprint for Emerging Economies

The Khavda project and India's broader solar expansion are being closely watched by developing nations that face a similar dilemma: how to power rapid economic growth without locking in decades of carbon-intensive infrastructure. Bond and other analysts argue that India's cost-driven, utility-scale solar model — built on competitive tariffs and large land parcels — offers a replicable template. Whether the grid infrastructure, financing, and policy stability needed to sustain this model can be exported remains an open question, but the numbers so far are difficult to dismiss.

With the Khavda park still under development and India's 2030 capacity targets approaching, the next few years will test whether the country can maintain its installation pace while ensuring reliable supply to a grid still partly dependent on coal.