Ambani sets eyes on green energy

Mumbai: RELIANCE Industries Ltd (RIL) on Thursday announced a Rs 75,000-crore investment in new energy business over the next three years as the operator of the world's largest oil refinery pivots towards a greener and cleaner version. Reliance will build solar manufacturing units, a battery factory for energy storage, a fuel cell-making plant and an electrolyser unit to produce green hydrogen as a part of the business, Chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual general meeting with shareholders on Thursday.

It will also set up 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power generation capacity by 2030 and invest in setting up a carbon fibre plant. The company, which earns about 60 per cent of revenue from its hydrocarbon-fuelled energy operations, had last year set a target of becoming a net-zero carbon company by 2035 - a shorter time frame compared to the 2050 cutoff self-imposed by many of its global peers, including BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

This comes as energy giants around the world come under pressure to move towards a low-carbon future to help improve the environment. Last year, "I had announced our 15-year commitment to become net carbon zero by 2035. Today I am happy to present to you our ambitious strategy and roadmap for implementing this vision," Ambani, 64, said.

"The age of fossil fuels, which powered economic growth globally for nearly three centuries, cannot continue much longer." The three-year plan includes building 'four Giga factories'. "Over the next three years, we will invest over Rs 60,000 crore in these initiatives," he said. "Reliance will thus create and offer a fully integrated, end-to-end renewable energy ecosystem."

The integrated solar photovoltaic Giga factory will create solar energy. It will use raw silica to make high-efficiency solar cells. "Reliance will establish and enable at least 100 GW of solar energy by 2030. A significant part of this will come from rooftop solar and decentralised solar installations in villages," he said. To store energy, thus generated, the firm will set up a factory to make advanced energy storage batteries. Besides electricity, Reliance also intends to produce green hydrogen that can be used as fuel in automobiles. It will set up a fuel cell factory that will use oxygen from the air and hydrogen to generate electricity.