Here Are The Competitors For Mukesh Ambani’s Clean Energy Push

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to venture into clean energy by investing nearly Rs 75,000 crore over three years.

By doing so, his Reliance Industries Ltd. became the first Indian firm to even have a plan of this magnitude. It, however, joins other global counterparts who already have made inroads towards setting up large giga factories with supply chains.

Ambani wants to set up four giga factories to produce solar cell modules, hydrogen, fuel cells and build a battery grid to store electricity.

Let’s look at the competition it faces in each of the segments-

Reliance aims to establish and enable 100 GW of solar energy by 2030, including on rooftop installations in villages across the country.

Right from raw silica to converting them to ingot and wafers and then using it to make high efficiency solar cells and assemble into solar modules—Ambani aims to do it end-to-end.

“If they’re able to do so, they’ll become the only company in India to do,” Ankit Doshi, director of Waaree ESS, said.

However there are peers in the country with giga factories in the solar cell and module space with the likes of Adani Green Energy Ltd., Waaree and Vikram Solar Ltd. Smaller players comprise Tata Solar, among others.

Globally it will face huge competition from China which counts giants such Longi Solar, JinkoSolar Holding Co., and Trina Solar Co. Then there’s Tesla Giga New York, Hanwha Q Cells, Canadian Solar, among others.

There are no companies in India with a giga factory in this segment at present but several firms intend to set them up in the country, including TDS Lithium-ion battery Gujarat Ltd. — a unit set up by Toshiba Corp., Denso Corp. and Suzuki Motor Corp.— and Exide Industries Ltd., among others.

Globally the market is much more competitive with the likes of Tesla Inc., Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., LG Chem Ltd., Panasonic Corp., Byd Auto Co., A123 systems LLC, SK Innovation Co, Guoxuan High-tech—in which Volkswagen is the biggest shareholder. All these players have at least battery capacity ranging from 2 gigawatt-hours to more than 70 GWh, according to Bloomberg data.

Ambani said Reliance aims to collaborate with global leaders on the technology.

The division plans to make modular electrolysers of the highest efficiency and lowest capital cost, and can be used for captive production of green hydrogen for domestic use and global sale.

Siemens Energy AG and Thyssenkrupp AG, McPhy Energy S.A., U.S.-based Plug Power Inc., ITM Linde Electrolysis, Cummins Inc., are some of the established players in this segment.

This factory would be used to make fuel cells—a technology that’s being promoted by carmakers including Hyundai Motor Co., and Toyota Motor Corp.

It faces competition from the likes of FuelCell Energy Inc., Ballard Power Systems Inc., Plug Power, Air Production & Chemicals Inc., Cummins Inc., Nel and others.

Earlier this year, Volvo AB and Daimler Trucks teamed up to produce hydrogen fuel cells for long-haul trucks, and aims to bring large-scale giga factory production levels of hydrogen fuel cells to Europe by 2025.