Reliance Industries to commission first phase of solar module factory by March

Reliance Industries (RIL) is planning to commission the first phase, 5 giga watt (GW), of its 20 GW module manufacturing capacity by March 2024, said two people familiar with the development.

RIL is setting up a solar photovoltaic giga factory in Jamnagar with a total capacity of 20 GW, which will be commissioned in four phases of 5 GW each.

Post commissioning of the first phase, it will be scaled up to 10 GW and then to 20 GW by 2026.

“RIL is preparing to commission its 5GW module manufacturing capacity by March 2024 and then scale it up to 10GW and then double it,” said an industry source aware of RIL’s plans. RIL did not respond to an email query till press time.
RIL will begin production at its solar PV (photovoltaic) and module factory, based on REC technology in Jamnagar. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance New Energy Solar, RIL acquired 100% stake in Norway-headquartered REC Solar in 2021 for $771 million (₹5800 crore).REC provides the high efficiency solar panels with Heterojunction Technology (HJT). RIL targets to increase the HJT module efficiency to 26% by 2026 from the current 23% and further improve it to 28% through innovations like perovskite-tandem cell technology, the company said in its annual report for 2022-23, adding that it also aims to extend the life of PV modules from 25 to 50 years.RIL has signed a supply agreement with China-based Suzhou Maxwell Technologies to buy a high efficiency production line for HJT cells for 4.8 GW capacity.RIL’s annual report added that it will establish 20 GW of solar energy generation capacity by 2025 for captive needs of round-the-clock (RTC) power and intermittent energy for green hydrogen. The company has received 74,750 hectare of land parcel in Gujarat on a 40-year lease for its green hydrogen project.

“Once proven at scale, Reliance is prepared to double the investment to scale up the manufacturing ecosystem,” RIL added in its annual report. In 2021, RIL announced an investment of ₹75,000 crore to build its new energy business.

The company added that it has been making significant progress in developing the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex, spread over 5,000 acres in Jamnagar to develop photovoltaic panels, energy storage, Green Hydrogen, and fuel cell systems. RIL aims to establish and enable 100GW of solar energy by 2030.

RIL is awarded with Integrated Solar Manufacturing (PolySilicon – Wafer – Cell – Module) for 10GW a year capacity under Solar production linked incentive (PLI) Scheme and 5GWh a year capacity for manufacturing of batteries under Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) PLI Scheme.

It is also building a Giga Factory for Power Electronics to link the entire green energy value chain and design and manufacture affordable power electronics and software systems…through partnerships with leading companies worldwide.

For its integrated solar PV module fray, other than REC, RIL has acquired stake in four companies over the past three years.

These include, a 40% stake in Sterling & Wilson Renewable Energy; 20% stake in Caelux Corporation for the development of perovskite-based solar technology; acquired majority stake in California-based SenseHawk a developer of software based management tools for the solar energy generation industry and partnered with Germany’s NexWafe for joint technology development.