The country’s largest company Reliance Industries is expected to start solar energy production from its mega renewable energy project in Kutch, Gujarat in the first half of the next financial year. This project is spread over an area almost three times the size of Singapore. This project is part of Reliance Industries’ broader efforts towards clean energy and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2035. In a presentation to investors after the announcement of second quarter financial results, Reliance said that the development of the project in the 5,50,000 acre area of Kutch is progressing smoothly. Engineering and feasibility studies have been completed and land development is currently underway at various stages at the site.
It was said in the company’s presentation that it is expected to start solar power production for its own needs and green fuel production in the first half of next year. Four years ago, Reliance Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani had announced an investment of US $ 10 billion in the new energy business. This was seen as a remarkable turnaround, given the group’s massive petroleum refinery operations that Ambani had started in the 1990s.
Specialties of Green Energy Giga Complex
Along with this, Reliance started work on a new integrated renewable energy manufacturing center – Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex – named after the group founder. At the company’s annual shareholder meeting this year, Anant Ambani, the chairman’s youngest son, gave a glimpse of its scale. The plan included a construction area four times larger than Tesla’s Gigafactory, an order for steel large enough to build 100 Eiffel Towers, and a network large enough to ‘reach the moon and back’. Reliance’s clean energy plans include solar PV, battery storage, green hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel.
The company is moving towards setting up a solar PV manufacturing capacity of 20 GW PV and a battery giga-factory of 100 GWh. Reliance has also pledged to produce 3 million tonnes per year of green hydrogen by 2032, and will also manufacture components such as electrolyzers, battery storage and solar panels on its own.
this is how the work will be done
In an investor presentation, the company said it is gradually expanding its solar photovoltaic giga-factory. Reliance said that 4 PV module lines have already been commissioned, and the first cell line is expected to be commissioned soon. He further said that the company is on its way to achieve its targeted capacity and expand further in a modular manner. The PV solar manufacturing chain includes the production of polysilicon. After this, the ingot and wafer are prepared – ingots (monocrystalline cylinders or multicrystalline blocks) are made by melting and cooling the polysilicon. These bodies are then cut into thin wafers, which become the base of solar cells.
Next comes cell manufacturing – silicon wafers are put through various stages, including doping, cleaning and coating. Laser scribing is used to pattern the cells, and copper ribbons are used for electrical connections. Several cells are joined together and laminated between sheets of glass and encapsulant to form a waterproof module or panel. These modules are then combined into an array with the racking system. Which are supporting structures to place them in sunlight areas. Sunlight is available only during the day, so Reliance is also setting up a gigafactory to provide round-the-clock power for the battery value chain. The company said that the work of Battery Energy Storage Gigafactory is progressing rapidly.