India’s optimistic Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are outfront in the green-energy race
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani. Picture: REUTERS/AMIT DAVEThe UN Climate Change Conference in the Scottish city is being billed as our last best chance to keep global warming to below 1.5°C above pre-Industrial Revolution levels. But that is already unrealistic. With temperatures 1.1°C higher than in the second half of the 19th century and greenhouse gas emissions still rising, the ambitious goal adopted by 196 countries in Paris six years ago is a near-certain miss.
India’s official position just before the conference was that net zero emissions by 2050 is an unjust demand. Yet, the optimism of the tycoons from Gujarat offered a way out of the impasse. Pivoting away from fossil fuels, Ambani is setting up four new factories in the district, one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen and fuel cells. His flagship Reliance Industries has so far spent $1.2bn on acquisitions and partnerships, and already Bernstein analysts believe the new enterprise to be worth $36bn, compared with $30bn for the decades-old refining business.
Add that to the purchase of 40% of Sterling & Wilson Solar, a contractor with 3,000 engineering teams putting up renewable-energy farms globally, and you know that Ambani is going to make REC’s panels in Jamnagar and install them wherever the sun shines bright. Ambani, a huge generator of grey hydrogen — the dirty, cheaper type produced by refineries to power their own operations and often used by other industrial firms — wants to go green. He is seeking partners to bring viable technology to India. It is an expensive undertaking. Green hydrogen is priced between $4 and $6 per kilogram.
Adani, too, has talked of green hydrogen as a game-changer and wants to build electrolysers. Any plans to capture the entire hydrogen supply chain though would be misguided. Producing the gas, processing, storing and distributing it, and then putting it to use, requires varied expertise. It also needs special handling given its flammability.
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