Ambani sees India exporting $500 billion of green energy by 2042

Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest person, expects India to emerge as a leader in renewable energy with overseas sales of $500 billion in two decades.

“I have absolutely no doubt that India can, and India will emerge as a global new energy leader,” Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., said at an event Wednesday, predicting that the country’s green energy exports have “the potential of half a trillion dollars.” He did not elaborate on how this would be achieved.

India—the world’s third-biggest polluter—is relying on billionaires like Ambani to make good its pledge to be net-carbon zero by 2070. Ambani, whose retail-to-refining conglomerate plans to invest $76 billion for green projects, also predicted robust growth of India’s economy, overtaking Japan and the European Union to become the world’s third-largest by 2032.

Ambani, who built his fortune on refining fossil fuels and manufacturing petrochemical products, emphasized the need to reduce green hydrogen costs to about $1 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) or lower. Reliance, India’s largest company by market value, is already planning to re-purpose a facility to produce blue hydrogen for $1.2-$1.5 a kilogram. 

The tycoon, however, conceded that the country’s green transition will be a slow process and “cannot happen overnight.”

“For the next 2-3 decades, India’s dependence on coal and imported oil will continue,” he said. “But we must have a plan to eliminate that.”