Reliance Industries to set up fuel cell giga factory
At the Reliance Industries’ 44th annual general meeting, company MD, Mukesh Ambani, unveiled a mega vision for its new energy business. Reliance plans to invest over Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years to offer a fully integrated, end-to-end renewables energy ecosystem, including a factory to manufacture fuel cell technology.
- Reliance to invest Rs 60,000 crore over next three years to develop renewable energy ecosystem
- Development of Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex in Jamnagar underway
Reliance to set up four giga factories
The company plans to build four giga factories to manufacture and fully integrate all the critical components of the New Energy ecosystem.
- A fuel-cell factory for converting hydrogen into motive and stationary power
- An integrated solar photovoltaic module factory to produce solar energy
- An advanced energy storage battery factory to store intermittent energy
- An electrolyser factory for production of green hydrogen
“We have started work on developing the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex on 5,000 acres in Jamnagar. It will be amongst the largest such integrated renewable energy manufacturing facilities in the world,” Ambani said.
Fuel cell giga factory
Speaking on the fuel cell giga factory, Ambani said, “A fuel cell uses oxygen from the air and hydrogen, to generate electricity. The only emission of this process is non-polluting water vapour. In the new era, fuel cells will progressively replace internal combustion engines. Fuel cell engines can power automobiles, trucks and buses. They can also be used in stationary applications for powering data centres, telecom towers, emergency generators and micro grids and industrial equipment.
Fuel cell technology is still in the nascent stage in India, with the country currently lacking adequate infrastructure to support the use of fuel cell electric vehicle. The country’s first indigenously developed FCEV underwent successful trials late last year, while Indian Oil recently said that it was looking to make hydrogen more commercially viable along with partnering auto manufacturers for FCEV projects.
