Mukesh Ambani's Reliance to power India’s green revolution with first giga factory by March

Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s most valuable company by market capitalisation, plans to complete construction of its first giga factory for photovoltaic (PV) modules by March, with trial runs already started at its green energy complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat, said sources in the know.

RIL, which aims to branch out into carbon-neutral energy production, targets commissioning a series of projects besides the PV module factory—including a battery factory and a green hydrogen plant—this year.

It plans to set up a 10 GW solar PV factory in Jamnagar. The production of battery packs will also begin at the complex, with plans to build a fully integrated 5 GWh annual cell-to-pack manufacturing facility.

The refining major wants to commission the 20 GW solar power generation project initially, with the power fully utilised for its green hydrogen production. The project will mark RIL’s transition from grey to green hydrogen.

The company has allocated ₹75,000 crore for building five giga factories in Jamnagar. Chairman Mukesh Ambani has already stated that the company is ready to double its investment to further scale up the new energy manufacturing ecosystem. He aims to bring down the cost of green hydrogen to $1 per kilogram within a decade.

Ambani plans to build an ecosystem for generating 100 GW of solar power by 2030 and achieving net carbon zero status by 2035. To meet these targets, he announced five giga factories—an integrated solar photovoltaic module factory, an advanced energy storage battery factory, an electrolyser factory, a fuel cell factory, and a power electronics factory.

RIL has entered into global partnerships for setting up these facilities. It is developing 5,000 acres of land in Jamnagar to build the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex. The site is located near two refineries and a petrochemical complex.