Reliance Industries has commenced its journey to become net carbon zero by 2035 with a set of concrete actions, chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the company’s 45th AGM. “Within one year, the renewable energy consumption at Reliance jumped by 352 per cent,” he said at the annual general meeting of shareholders. “Decarbonising the global economy will require multi-decade investments in Green and Clean Energy to the tune of $5 trillion per year globally. This also offers unprecedented opportunities for multi-decade growth,” he added. Ambani also announced that the company is prepared to double its investment to scale up its green manufacturing ecosystem, ‘nce proven at scale’.
“For solar PV manufacturing, we have acquired REC Solar. Our 10GW solar PV cell and module factory at Jamnagar, based on REC technology, will commence production by 2024 and scale up to 20GW capacity by 2026,” Ambani said. Mukesh Ambani also announced a new GigaFactory for Power Electronics. The company had, last year, shared its plan to invest $10 billion over the three year period to set up four giga-factories to make solar modules, hydrogen electrolysers, fuel cells and storage batteries. “I am happy to inform you that Reliance has inaugurated Phase I of its Bio-Energy Technology (BET) Centre at Jamnagar on August 15, 2022,” he said.
Reliance has partnered with Stiesdal for commercialisation of Pressurised Alkaline Electrolyzer technology. “We are one of the largest producers of Grey Hydrogen globally. We have partnered with Stiesdal to accelerate cost reduction and commercialisation of their Pressurised Alkaline Electrolyzer technology,” Ambani said. Reliance also aims to commence ‘transition from Grey Hydrogen to Green Hydrogen by 2025’.
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‘India to become net exporter of energy’
Mukesh Ambani also said that the company’s actions in the new energy business will help India become a net exporter of energy. “It will also strengthen indigenous R&D base and make India a reservoir of intellectual property. Most importantly, it aims to make India a world leader in new energy manufacturing and a credible alternative to China.” He said that these actions offer opportunities for multi-decade growth, as “decarbonising the global economy will require annual $5 trillion investments for several decades in Green and Clean Energy globally”.
In his previous speech during AGM meets, Mukesh Ambani had mentioned Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s proposed investment in Reliance’s energy business in 2019 and a strategic shift to green energy last year. This year too, it was expected that the business tycoon will make an announcement around Reliance’s increased focus towards green energy. In his address to shareholders in the company’s annual report for 2021-22, Ambani had said that the green power segment will emerge as a growth engine for the company that could potentially outperform other businesses in the next 5-7 years.