Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has launched the first production line of its heterojunction (HJT) solar module manufacturing project, part of its broader plan to achieve a 10 GW/year capacity.
During a call with analysts to discuss the company’s Q4 2024 financial results, the company’s CFO, V. Srikanth, shared that RIL has commissioned the ‘first gigawatt-scale’ solar module manufacturing line. The largest panel size achieved is the 720 W heterojunction (HJT) module. It is certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
The highly automated factory is equipped with electroluminescence (EL) inspection, packaging, edge trimming, junction box mounting, back support bar placement, and automated guided vehicles, among others.
RIL had unveiled plans to establish 5 gigafactories for solar, energy storage batteries, electrolyzers, fuel cell and power electronics in 2022. The solar factory is targeted to host 10 GW vertically integrated capacity from polysilicon to module, with plans to expand it to 20 GW in phases. Its HJT solar modules will have 28% efficiency, according to its roadmap (see Reliance Announces Power Electronics Giga Fab).
Once these plans are realized, they will significantly boost the country’s module manufacturing capacity that currently stands at around 80 GW, according to the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) CEO Subrahmanyam Pulipaka, who was speaking at the TaiyangNews Solar Technology Conference.India 2025 (STC.I 2025) in New Delhi recently. It will also expand the share of HJT technology in this market.
Srikanth added that on the entire solar chain, the engineering is complete, the long lead items and procurements are complete and going on in full swing. “I think we have defined that by end of 2025, early 2026, all these factories will get commissioned and will start producing and we are well on our way to achieve that,” stated the management.
“The uniqueness comes from the fact that it is scaled. The fact that the factories are absolutely state of the art. So what it means for us is if there is cost efficiency, there is technology efficiency, so when we say what is the cost of producing the final product, there is significant confidence that this is way more attractive than what it would be for anybody to import anything into this country,” he explained.
It has also commenced work on the lithium-ion phosphate battery manufacturing facility for which the annual target is 30 GW.
Recently speaking at the executive panel discussion at the STC.I 2025, RIL CTO Omkar Jani shared the rationale behind the company’s decision to pick HJT technology. He said this aligns with future advancements and cost optimization during ramp-up. Additionally, its polysilicon plant will produce semiconductor-grade silicon to future-proof its solar investments (see TaiyangNews STC.I 2025 Day 1: Innovation & Strategic Collaborations Key To India’s Solar Manufacturing Success Story).
RIL also said that its land and transmission in the Kutch region of Gujarat is enough to support almost 150 billion units of electricity on a round-the-clock (RTC) basis which will be for captive consumption once the generation starts in 2027-28. It will use its solar modules to build solar farms in Kutch for which the transmission towers are being set up at present. Closer to the location in Kandla, it has planned a fully-integrated green hydrogen ecosystem on 2,000 acres of land.
