Reliance Industries unveils $10-billion plan for solar and energy storage

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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. 

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