Mukesh Ambani Unveils Ambitious Plans For New Energy Business With 5 Gigafactories At Its Giant Manufacturing Complex In Jamnagar

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, has reiterated his commitment to invest Rs 75,000 crores in its new energy business including five giga factories it is building in Gujarat.

"By 2025, Jamnagar will also become the cradle of our new energy business. The Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Manufacturing Complex will be the world’s largest, most modern, modular, and integrated ecosystem at a single location," Ambani said at the company's 47th AGM yesterday.

The group's Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex is coming up in over 5,000 acres in Jamnagar with five giga factories for Solar PV (Photovoltaic) panels, advanced energy storage batteries, electrolyser, fuel cells, and power electronics. The vicinity also includes two refineries and a petrochemical complex.

Solar PV Modules Gigafactory

The production of solar PV modules will commence by the end of this year with a target to achieve an initial annual capacity of 10 gigawatts (GW) in the first phase of the integrated solar production facility. It eventually targets establishing and enabling at least 100 GW of solar energy by 2030.

Reliance has envisioned it as a fully integrated, end-to-end solar PV manufacturing ecosystem, which will be one of the largest solar giga factories globally upon completion.

The Jamnagar solar PV and cell module factory will be the first-of-its-kind 'quartz-to-module' facility globally. The solar giga factory will include manufacturing of photovoltaic (PV) modules, cells, wafers and ingots, polysilicon, and glass.

In October 2021, Reliance acquired Norway’s REC Solar Holdings from China National Bluestar (Group) Co for an enterprise value of $771 million. This was the first major renewable energy deal for Reliance where an equipment manufacturing facility has been acquired. 

Battery Gigafactory

The advanced battery manufacturing facility with a 30GWh annual capacity will commence by the second half of next year. Afterward, the plan is to integrate cell manufacturing and battery chemicals backward.

The group aims to produce Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) based battery solutions and is also working on the commercialisation of sodium-ion battery technology.

It is also targeting industrialising sodium-ion cell production at the MW level in 2025 and the first 50 MWh a year lithium battery cells pilot in 2026.

In December 2022, Reliance's New Energy vertical acquired leading global Faradion Ltd, a UK start-up developing sodium-ion batteries, for an enterprise value of over  $135 million (Rs.1,000 crore).

Sodium-ion batteries are viewed as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries because they are safer and about 30% cheaper. However, adoption remains a challenge as their energy density of about 150 W⋅h/kg is substantially lower than that of the latest lithium-ion batteries. 

In March 2022, Reliance's New Energy acquired Lithium Werks, a cobalt-free lithium battery technology and manufacturing company, with operations in the US, Europe, and China.

The company has leased arid wasteland in Kutch, just 250 km from Jamnagar, where it has the potential to generate about 150 billion units of electricity in the next 10 years, providing nearly 10 percent of India’s energy requirements.

Electrolyser Gigafactory

Reliance is also setting up a gigafactory to manufacture modular electrolysers that can be used for captive production of green hydrogen for domestic use as well as for global sale.

During the AGM, Ambani confirmed plans to build a multi-GW electrolyser manufacturing facility in Jamnagar which will be ready by 2026. The giga factory will support various technologies such as Alkaline, PEM, and AEM.

"Our deep understanding of electro-chemistry, combined with our ability to industrialise at scale and integrate with low-cost solar energy, gives us a unique advantage in delivering green hydrogen and green fuels at the most economical cost," Ambani said in his address to shareholders

In May 2024, Reliance signed an agreement with Norway's Nel ASA, a technology platform for manufacturing electrolysers, for sourcing technology to make electrolysers for the production of green hydrogen

Reliance Green Hydrogen is among the nine firms selected to receive the Indian government's incentives for setting up facilities to produce up to 4,50,000 tonnes of green hydrogen under the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) Scheme (Mode-1-Tranche-I)

Fuel Cells Gigafactory

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) plans to set up a fuel cell giga factory as part of its new energy and new materials business.

Hydrogen fuel cells can be used to power automobiles. A fuel cell uses oxygen from the air and hydrogen to generate electricity. Fuel cells can also be used to power data centres, telecom towers, emergency generators, microgrids, and industrial equipment.

Power Electronics Gigafactory

Reliance is also proposing to build a new gigafactory for power electronics that will design and manufacture affordable and reliable power electronics, for telecommunications, cloud computing, and IoT (internet of Things) platforms. Power electronics deals with the processing of high voltages and currents to deliver power and is key to the global decarbonisation process.

Reliance has also leased arid wasteland in Kutch, just 250 km from Jamnagar, where it has the potential to generate about 150 billion units of electricity in the next 10 years, providing nearly 10 percent of India’s energy requirements.