Reliance Industries Ltd‘s (RIL) green energy business which was launched last year will outshine all its existing growth engines in just 5-7 years, Chairman Mukesh Ambani said in his note to shareholders in the company’s annual report for FY22.
“Over the next 12 months our investments across the Green Energy value chain will gradually start going live, scaling up over the next couple of years. This new growth engine holds great promise to outshine all our existing growth engines in just 5-7 years,” said Ambani.
At RIL’s annual general meeting last year, Ambani unveiled plans to set up Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex on 5,000 acres in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to create and offer a fully integrated, end-to-end renewables energy eco-system with plans to invest $10 billion over three years.
“Just as India has the world’s most affordable wireless broadband today, we will have the world’s most affordable Green Energy within this decade. And these solutions will then be exported to other countries, helping them
contain carbon emissions,” Ambani said in the annual report.
Last fiscal RIL entered into a series of partnerships, including equity investments, with local and international corporates with unique technological and execution capabilities, with a strong track record of innovation and a growing number of patents and IPRs across the Green Energy value chain.
Reliance’s partnerships include companies like Ambri in the US, Faradion in the UK and The Netherlands-based Lithium Werks in the energy storage space.
Similarly, RIL invested in Germany’s NexWafe, which is a pioneer in next-gen technology to produce monocrystalline silicon wafers needed in making solar panels. It also acquired promoters’ stake in REC Solar – a global technology leader in solar panel manufacturing. RIL picked up a 40% stake in Sterling & Wilson Renewable Energy – one of the world’s leading EPC turnkey contractors in large scale solar projects.
In the Hydrogen ecosystem, RIL joined hands with the US-based Chart Industries to set up India H2 Alliance to commercialise hydrogen technology and develop a supply chain in collaboration with other Indian stakeholders. It also entered into an agreement with Denmark’s Stiesdal A/S for its innovative next-gen electrolyser technology, which has the potential to dramatically reduce the cost of producing hydrogen from pure water.
RIL will also invest in creating an ecosystem of thousands of small and medium scale project consultants and installers pan-India to set up Green Energy generation projects in every nook and corner of the country. Similarly, RIL will undertake large Giga Watt scale turnkey Green Energy projects for Power GenCos or large investors on its own.
“We know that affordability is the most critical factor in the adoption of any new technology and the scale of societal benefit it can create. Reliance has embarked on this journey with a vision to repeat the feat it achieved in wireless broadband,” Ambani added.