Ambani’s moonshot for green hydrogen

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries (RIL), has fired a salvo when he declared at the recent International Climate Summit 2021 that India will be the first country in the world to produce green hydrogen at less than $1 per kilogram in a decade. He has set an ambitious target of 1-1-1 for green hydrogen in India.

“This will make India the first country globally to achieve $1 per 1 kg in 1 decade – the 1-1-1 target for Green Hydrogen,” he said while addressing the Summit.

“Efforts are on globally to make Green Hydrogen most affordable fuel option by bringing down its cost to initially under $2 per kg. Let me assure you all that Reliance will aggressively pursue this target and achieve it well before the turn of this decade. And India has always set and achieved even more audacious goals. I am sure that India can set even more aggressive target of achieving under $1 per kg within a decade.”

Ambani’s words of determination came weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the goal to reach 450 gigawatts renewable energy capacity by 2030. Reliance has committed to produce at least 100 GW of solar energy by 2030.

“This will bring enormous benefits and prosperity to rural India. India has achieved several goals that seemed impossible over the years. I am sure this 1-1-1 target for Green Hydrogen will also be achieved by our talented young entrepreneurs, researchers and innovators,” said Ambani, who has committed $10 billion investments in renewables during RIL’'s AGM.

RIL is developing Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex over 5,000 acres in Jamnagar to be among the world’s largest integrated renewable energy manufacturing facility with an investment of Rs75,000 crore in the next three years.

This complex will have four Giga Factories, which cover the entire spectrum of renewable energy, including an integrated solar photovoltaic module factory, advanced energy storage battery factory, electrolyser factory for the production of Green Hydrogen, and a fuel cell factory for converting hydrogen into motive and stationary power.The rapid fall in the cost of production has made solar energy highly competitive, attracting large-scale investments.

Ambani believes that this shall play a key role in ensuring similar growth trends in “green hydrogen” – the future replacement of fossil fuels. Green hydrogen is zero-carbon energy, the best and cleanest source of energy, which can play a fundamental role in the world’s decarbonization plans.

“Green hydrogen is key to our ever green, sustainable and prosperous future of everyone on the planet. Hydrogen has high gravimetric energy density and can be reconverted into electricity and heat with zero emissions. Although the costs of hydrogen from electrolysis today are high, they are expected to fall significantly in the coming years. New technologies are emerging for hydrogen storage and transportation, which will dramatically reduce the cost of distribution. Furthermore, the Government of India is planning to create an enabling Green Hydrogen ecosystem in the country. Because of all these developments, Green Hydrogen will surely attract significant investments,” said Ambani.

India meets most of its present energy demand by imported fossil fuels costing it $160 billion every year. Although India’s per capita energy consumption and emissions are less than half the global average, India is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.