Reliance Industries started off as a textile company, slowly expanding from trading to manufacturing. Over the past few decades, it transformed into an oil refining and petrochemicals giant. Its Jamnagar manufacturing division is the world’s largest refining hub. But, over the next decade, the company aims to transform into a clean and green energy powerhouse.
“Jamnagar was the cradle of our old energy business. Jamnagar will also be the cradle of our new energy business,” RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders at the company’s 44th annual general meeting on Thursday.
With this new green energy push, Ambani is set to take another Gujarati billionaire in Gautam Adani head on. A rally in Adani Group’s shares including flagship Adani Enterprises and Adani Green Energy, which is eyeing installed capacity of 25GW by 2025, added around $43 billion to Adani’s wealth this year, according to Bloomberg.
RIL’s transformation will be done in three parts. As a first step, RIL plans to build four giga factories, which will manufacture and fully integrate all the critical components of the new energy ecosystem. This will include an integrated solar photovoltaic module factory, another factory for advanced energy storage batteries, an electrolyser factory and a fuel cell factory.
“Over the next 3 years we will invest over Rs 60,000 crore in these initiatives. Reliance will thus create and offer a fully integrated, end-to-end renewables energy ecosystem,” said Ambani.
Additionally, RIL will invest Rs 15,000 crore in value chain, partnerships and future technologies.
Reliance plans to establish and enable at least 100GW of solar energy by 2030. A significant part of this will come from rooftop solar and decentralised solar installations in villages.
At the solar energy giga factory, RIL will convert raw silica into poly silicon, which will then be converted into ingot and wafers. These wafers will be used to make high efficiency solar cells and finally assembled into solar modules.
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RIL is also exploring advanced electro-chemical technologies that can be used for large-scale grid batteries to store the energy.
“We 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,” said Ambani.
Apart from solar energy, hydrogen will also be a focus for RIL’s new energy business. So, it will set up a electrolyser giga factory to manufacture modular electrolysers that can be used for captive production of green hydrogen.
A giga factory for fuel cells, which use oxygen from the air and hydrogen to generate electricity, is also planned.
The Jamnagar complex will provide infrastructure and utilities to manufacture the ancillary material and equipment that will be needed for the giga factories. Ambani said that RIL would also support independent manufacturers to build a nationwide ecosystem.
RIL’s new energy push doesn’t just end at building factories. It will also set up a dedicated renewable energy project management and construction division, with plans to provide end-to-end solutions for large renewable energy plants around the world.
“Over the years, Reliance has developed significant engineering, project management and construction capabilities combining physical and digital technologies. We will repurpose these capabilities, along with major international organisations to execute and deliver world class, renewable energy solutions,” said Ambani.
A renewable energy project finance division will provide finance solutions to the stakeholders, by enabling a platform to source long-term global capital for these investments at the most attractive terms.
Simultaneously, RIL will also facilitate a platform to provide financing for the entire ecosystem of small businesses and entrepreneurs that invest alongside.
Undoubtedly, Ambani wants to become one of the largest players in the renewable energy business. But, as usual, he feels India will be the biggest beneficiary.
“Solar power is the primary source of energy for our planet earth. I envision a future when our country will be transformed from a larger importer of fossil energy to a large exporter of clean solar energy solutions,” said Ambani.
