Reliance, Adani follow different routes in green energy journey

Two of India's wealthiest tycoons have made a grand entry into renewable energy in the last few years; however, while both Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have similar ambitions for the sunrise sector, their paths have often diverged.

- Nehal Chaliawala, Ayaan Kartik & Varun Sood

Adani, which entered renewable energy in 2015 by forming Adani Green Energy, is now the country's largest green power producer. Through Adani New Industries Ltd (ANIL), it is also a top producer of solar cells, modules and wind turbine generators. The new energy businesses earned about ₹25,000 crore for the Ahmedabad-based conglomerate in FY25.

Meanwhile, it was at Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) annual general meeting (AGM) in 2020 that Ambani declared his ambition to make the conglomerate a world leader in new energy and new materials in 15 years. Gujarat's Jamnagar, which hosts its sprawling oil refinery, would become the cradle of its new energy business too, he had said.

However, progress has been slower. Of the 330-odd subsidiaries of Reliance Industries, as listed on its website, about four dozen are engaged in new energy. But revenues from these businesses are minuscule on RIL's 10-trillion annual income statement. As Ambani takes the stage at yet another RIL AGM on Friday, investors will be keen for an update.

At both, the green businesses are led by the promoter family's next generation. Sagar Adani, the nephew of Gautam, is an executive director at Adani Green Energy, while Mukesh's youngest son Anant Ambani is an executive director on the board of RIL focusing on new energy and materials.

Emails sent to Reliance and the Adani Group on Tuesday requesting comment remained unanswered.

Ambani had said at the AGM in 2022 that by the following year, RIL would start making battery packs and scale up the operations to a fully integrated 5 GWh per annum capacity by 2024.

However, at the 2024 AGM, Ambani said production would start by the latter half of 2025. The plant is yet to become operational.