Petroleum Giant Reliance Set to Invest Billions in India’s Renewable Energy Sector

Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, Mr. Ambani added to his speech and said, “It will be amongst the largest such integrated renewable energy manufacturing facilities in the world

Petroleum Giant Reliance Set to Invest Billions in India’s Renewable Energy Sector

On 24th June 2021, India’s richest Man and Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani announced the future plans of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) with a USD 10 billion investment in renewable energy over the next three years.

Speaking at the company’s 44th Annual general meeting, Mukesh Ambani also announced the plan to establish a 5000-acre complex in the city of Jamnagar, Gujarat. Jamnagar is already home to the world’s largest refinery with capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day.

Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, Mr. Ambani added to his speech and said, “It will be amongst the largest such integrated renewable energy manufacturing facilities in the world.” He further added and said, “We will transform our legacy business into sustainable, circular, and net-zero carbon materials business—one that will provide growing returns over several decades. As an important part of this vision of achieving accelerated growth, we look forward to welcoming Saudi Aramco as a strategic partner in our O2C business.”

Mr. Ambani further said that the company has plans to build four gigafactories to manufacture and integrate all critical components of the New Energy ecosystem. Each gigafactories will operate or produce a different type of energy source. Solar photovoltaic modules - for the production of solar energy, energy storage batteries - for intermittent energy, electrolysers -  for the production of green hydrogen, and Fuel cells - for converting hydrogen into mobile and stationary power are expected to be the concepts of four gigafactories announced by Mukesh Ambani.

Reliance will further build two additional divisions for renewable energy segment to support its ecosystem. A dedicated project management and construction division, and a project finance division would be the two additional divisions.  Reliance will also build solar capacity of at least 100 GW by 2030, and with that Reliance would be able to fulfill one-fifth of India’s renewable energy target (450 GW) by 2030.

Emphasizing on Indian PM Narendra Modi’s  “self-reliant India” campaign, Mukesh Ambani further announced that all the equipment and products used in the gigafactories will be made in India. Mr. Ambani added, “All our products will proudly proclaim made in India, by India, for India, and for the world.”

Although, India’s renewable energy sector is still at a nascent stage, still India’s renewable energy capacity has more than tripled over the past five years, according to the government with companies like Waaree Solar, Tata Group, Vikram Solar and the Adani Group operating in India’s renewable energy sector.