Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian, has announced his company Reliance Industries’ foray into the new energy business. The company has aggressive plans to manufacture and fully integrate all the critical components of the renewables energy ecosystem—spanning every stage of the solar supply chain, advanced energy storage, hydrogen production, and fuel cells.
In the annual meeting with the shareholders, Ambani shared the company’s INR 60,000-crore (US$ 8.1 billion) plan to set up four Giga factories: an integrated solar photovoltaic module factory to cater to the production of solar energy, an advanced energy storage battery factory for the storage of intermittent energy, an electrolyzer factory for the production of green hydrogen, and a fuel cell factory for converting hydrogen into motive and stationary power. Besides, an INR 15,000-crore (US$ 2 billion) amount is planned into a value chain, partnerships, and future technologies, including upstream and downstream industries.
Thus, the company would invest INR 75,000 crore (over $10 billion) in the New Energy business in three years.
Work has already started on developing a 5000-acre manufacturing complex in Jamnagar in the Indian State of Gujarat to house the fabs.
The solar photovoltaic Giga factory will cover the entire silica-polysilicon-ingot/wafers-cells-modules chain and target to achieve the world’s lowest-cost, high-efficiency solar modules.
“We aim to establish and enable at least 100 GW of solar energy by 2030,” announced Ambani.
For the advanced energy storage Giga factory, Reliance is exploring new and advanced electrochemical technologies that can be used for large-scale grid batteries. It will collaborate with global leaders in battery technology to achieve the highest reliability for round-the-clock power availability through a combination of generation, storage, and grid connectivity.
The electrolyzer Giga factory would strive to manufacture modular electrolyzers of the highest efficiency and lowest capital cost. These will be used for captive production of green hydrogen for domestic use and global sale.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
A small, tiny step towards a Pollution Free India… and maybe the Globe….
No matter which way you look… $10Billion will barely make a dent in India’s pursuit of Zero Pollution to stop the 2.5 Million Annual Premature Deaths and 35 Million DALY of Suffering that will require a 15TW RE System producing 18,000TWhrs/yr… in 2050.
Just manufacturing of Solar Panels in Ingot-Wafer-Cell-Panel Factories will require 500GW/yr Facilities at a whopping cost of $200Billion, Energy Storage 100GW/yr needing $200 Billion/yr… $10 Billion is simply not enough to Eliminate Pollution in India…. and the Private Sector will just be able to do it… alone… as the richest man in India has displayed here… but FIRST… India needs a Plan…. not “shoot from the hip” approach of GOI and the BJP Government…. specially Ministry of NRE… who are completely “out of their league’ in this pursuit of a Zero Pollution future for India.