Reliance’s mega solar energy project will challenge China’s dominance Reliance’s mega solar energy project will challenge China’s dominance

New Delhi : After making flags in the telecom and retail sector, Reliance is now going to change the face of the solar energy sector. In the general annual meeting of Reliance Industries held on Thursday, Mukesh Ambani announced an investment of Rs 75,000 crore on end-to-end renewable energy ecosystem over the next three years. To compete with China, Reliance will build the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex on 5000 acres in Jamnagar, Gujarat.

Chinese companies dominate the solar energy market in India. About 80 percent of the total demand for solar cells, solar panels and solar modules is imported from China. Before Kovid, in the year 2018-19, solar equipment worth $2.16 billion was imported from China in the country. It is not that solar equipment is not made in India, but they are not able to survive in front of Chinese goods because Chinese equipment sits 30 to 40 percent cheap. Not only this, Chinese companies also occupy 64% of the polysilicon material used to make solar cells.

Things are expected to change with Reliance entering the fray. Reliance has set a target of producing 100 GW of solar energy by 2030. For this, Reliance will set up four mega factories. Out of which one solar module will make photovoltaic module. For the storage of second energy, the state-of-the-art energy storage battery will work. Third, Green will build an electrolyser for the production of hydrogen. The fourth will make a fuel cell to convert hydrogen into energy.

Reliance has adopted an end to end approach for solar energy, which can prove to be effective. Apart from the mega factories, Reliance will also create two divisions for project and financial management. One of the divisions will oversee the construction and management of renewable energy projects. While the second division will oversee the financial management of renewable energy projects. It is clear that from raw material to production of renewable energy equipment to construction of large projects and their financial management, the entire work will be done under one roof. Obviously, this will reduce costs and Reliance will be able to compete with Chinese companies.

Speaking on Renewable Energy, Mukesh Ambani said that all our products will be ‘Made in India, Buy India, for India and the world’. Reliance will put Gujarat and India on the world solar and hydrogen map. If we can make proper use of solar energy, then India can become a net exporter of solar energy instead of a net importer of fossil fuel. Reliance wants to make its new energy business a truly global business. We have established Reliance New Energy Council with some of the best talent globally.

A part of Reliance’s solar energy will come from roof-top solar and generation of solar energy in villages. The production of solar energy in villages is expected to boost the rural economy. Reliance intends to keep the cost of solar modules among the lowest in the world, to make solar energy affordable. On the other hand, the government also seems very serious about solar energy. To promote solar energy, the central government has run many schemes like Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha, Roof Top Solar, Solar Park.