Reliance Industries’ first ever green hydrogen production was achieved with firing of torrefied biomass in gasifiers in 2022-23.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) aims to provide affordable green hydrogen as a viable alternative to traditional fuels, said Chairman Mukesh Ambani in the annual report for FY23.

Ambani stated that in FY23, RIL’s teams across sites worked towards finding sustainable solutions. Reliance Industries achieved its first-ever green hydrogen production with the firing of torrefied biomass in gasifiers in 2022-23.

“A switch to cleaner energy sources is key to our decarbonization strategy. We are making significant strides in establishing a world-class solar energy value chain. We are also progressing in building a green hydrogen ecosystem. Our goal is to provide affordable green hydrogen as a viable alternative to traditional fuels,” Ambani said.

Reliance aims to become net carbon zero by 2035 and is rapidly progressing with the development of giga-factories at the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex at Jamnagar.

The company is on track to establish a world-class, self-sufficient green energy ecosystem, considering the collective potential of its five giga-factories.

Reliance said it is leveraging the expertise of its global partners to derive maximum value from its new energy initiatives.

“We recognize the urgency of addressing the issues emanating from climate change. We believe our new energy initiatives will contribute to the global effort of limiting the rise in average temperatures,” the company said in its annual report.

Giga factories on track

Reliance targets to increase the Heterojunction Technology (HJT) module efficiency to 26 percent by 2026 from the current 23 percent at its Solar Photovoltaic Giga Factory and further improve it to 28 percent through innovations like perovskite-tandem cell technology.

The company also aims to extend the life of PV modules from 25 to 50 years. Reliance’s 10 GW solar PV cell and module factory at Jamnagar, based on REC technology, will commence production by 2024, the company said in its annual report.

Reliance aims to scale the plant to 20 GW annual capacity in a phased manner by 2026, it added.

At its advanced energy storage giga factory, Reliance aims to start production of battery packs and scale up to a fully integrated 5 GWh annual cell-to-pack manufacturing facility by 2024. Reliance plans to further scale this capacity to 50 GWh annually by 2027.

The company will leverage its complementary skills in engineering, operations, seawater desalination, digital twin expertise, and indigenous balance of plants to complement its partner’s technological innovation in stack manufacturing, enabling the delivery of Green Hydrogen at the lowest cost at its electrolyser giga factory.

After proving cost and performance targets, the company said aims to progressively commence transition from grey to green Hydrogen by 2025.

Reliance has plans to set up a giga factory for fuel cells which the company said are set to gradually replace internal combustion engines in the future.

“These engines can power various types of vehicles, including cars, trucks, and buses. Additionally, they can be used in stationary applications to power data centres, telecom towers, emergency generators, microgrids, and industrial equipment,” the company said.

Reliance added that is developing significant capabilities in designing and manufacturing power electronics and software systems with investment in power electronics giga factor.

The company said this initiative is being integrated with the Reliance’s existing strengths in telecommunications, cloud computing, and IoT platforms, enabling a more comprehensive approach to developing new energy solutions.

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