RIL’s gigafactory-sized ambition for hydrogen could be a game changer

Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, has a $10 billion plan to scale up zero-carbon hardware in India. Reliance Industries, the oil- and refining-heavy conglomerate that he controls, intends to develop four huge “giga factories” to manufacture photovoltaic modules, batteries, fuel cells, and—importantly—electrolyzers to produce hydrogen.

It’s a big plan, but short of details. Still, it bridges two aspects of decarbonisation: technologies that exist today and are economical at scale, and those that need a major effort to get to that point.

A factory capable of manufacturing 100 gigawatts of solar panels in nine years is impressive, certainly, but it’s not out of the realm of today’s possibilities. A number of companies already manufacture more than 10 gigawatts of modules a year.