Nearly three years after Reliance Industries (RIL) announced its target to bring down the cost of green hydrogen production to $1 per kilogram in India, its chairman Mukesh Ambani on August 28 said the company has now chalked out a roadmap towards achieving the target.
"I can also confidently say now that we have a roadmap towards achieving our targeted cost of electrolysers, and in turn, green hydrogen," Ambani said at the oil-to-telecom conglomerate's annual general meeting (AGM) on August 28.
In September, 2021, Ambani, while addressing the International Climate Summit, said India can set an aggressive target of achieving a green hydrogen output target of $1 per kg within a decade. "This will make India the first country globally to achieve $1 per 1 kilogram in a decade—the 1-1-1 target for green hydrogen," he said, adding that efforts are on globally to make green hydrogen the most affordable fuel option by bringing down its cost initially to under $2 per kg.
At the company's 46th AGM on August 28, Ambani said RIL will simultaneously set up a fully-integrated, automated, giga-scale electrolyser manufacturing facility. This will come up at the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex in Jamnagar and it was first announced by RIL in 2021.
Check Reliance AGM 2023 Highlights here
RIL aims to have an installed renewable energy (RE) capacity of 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and be net carbon zero by 2035. Nationally, India has set a target of having an installed RE capacity of 500 GW by 2030 and being net zero by 2070.
The National Green Hydrogen Mission, which was approved by the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 4, alone will require about 250 GW of RE for the country to meet its targeted green hydrogen production of 5 million tons per annum.
"When I spoke with you last year, we were still working on two critical components for delivering the most cost competitive green hydrogen and its derivatives – 1. cost of renewable power generation; 2. installed cost of electrolyser for giga-scale deployment. Our solar and wind energy storage integrated manufacturing ecosystem will deliver the most cost-efficient renewable power," Ambani said in his address at the 46th AGM of RIL.
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The electrolyser manufacturing facility will enable RIL to establish large-scale green hydrogen production at Jamnagar, gradually transition its captive requirements, and simultaneously integrate with green ammonia and green methanol production for domestic and international markets.
Ambani’s oil-to-chemicals unit is one of the world’s biggest consumers of grey hydrogen, extracted from petcoke, a heavy refinery residue.
"Our company is uniquely positioned to be a global leader in green chemicals manufacturing by leveraging its O2C infrastructure, talent, and execution capabilities," Ambani said.
Energy Trilemma
Ambani said India is facing an "energy trilemma", for which Reliance has a practical solution to offer.
The ‘Energy Trilemma’ demands action to overcome three challenges, he said. One, affordability of energy; Two, sustainability of energy; Three, security of energy.
"Reliance’s new energy and new materials business squarely addresses this trilemma. Green energy is becoming affordable because its costs are already much less than those of non-renewables, and they will come down further. Green energy is sustainable because the sun and wind are never going to disappear. Green energy is secure because India will no longer be dependent on large-scale imports for its energy needs," Ambani said.
"Furthermore, Reliance will have indigenous technology ownership and manufacturing capabilities. In fact, Reliance has a golden chance to enable India to transform itself from a net energy importer to a net energy exporter," he said.
Disclosure: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.
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