Reliance to commission first solar giga-factory this year

Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company, plans to commission its first solar giga-factory this year as part of a pivot towards green energy, its chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday.

The solar giga factory will include the manufacturing of PV modules, cells, wafers and ingots, polysilicon, and glass at a single location. The modules convert sunlight into electricity.

Addressing the annual shareholders meeting, he said the first train of 20GW solar PV (photovoltaic) manufacturing "will commence production" by the end of this year.

It is also targeting industrialising sodium-ion cell production at the MW level in 2025 and the first 50 MWh a year lithium battery cells pilot in 2026.

Reliance, in 2021, announced plans to invest $10 billion over three years to develop a new fuels business based on 100 GW of renewable power capacity by 2030.

The plan involves setting up four giga factories for manufacturing renewable equipment, battery storage, fuel cells and hydrogen at Jamnagar in Gujarat.