Adani Group will invest up to $70 bn to become top green energy producer by 2030

The investments would include a fresh $20 bn over the next decade, for areas such as electrolyzer manufacturing, and AI-based industrial cloud platforms, among others.

File photo of Gautam Adani | Photo: Tomohiro Ohsumi | Bloomberg

Mumbai: Adani Group, the ports-to-power conglomerate founded by billionaire Gautam Adani, estimates it would have invested $50 billion to $70 billion across its green energy value chain as it aims to become the world’s top renewable energy producer by 2030.

That would include a fresh $20 billion over the next decade, for areas such as electrolyzer manufacturing, backward integration plans to secure the supply chain for solar and wind generation businesses, and AI-based industrial cloud platforms, Adani, Asia’s second-richest person, said at a virtual summit Monday.

“We are tripling our solar power generation capacity over the next four years. This is a rate of growth currently unmatched by any other company anywhere on the planet,” Adani said. “Our renewables portfolio has reached the initial target of 25 gigawatts a full four years ahead of schedule.”

India has a target of creating 450 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030 and the nation’s top billionaires, including Adani and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, are pledging green investments. Ambani is aiming for green hydrogen at $1 a kilogram by the turn of this decade, a price that could threaten fossil fuels.

Adani said he is confident that his conglomerate’s integrated value chain, scale, and experience puts it on the road to be the producer of the least expensive “green electron” anywhere in the world.

“This advantage opens several new pathways for us including setting us up to be one of the largest green hydrogen producers in the world, thereby opening up additional possibilities to be a partner of choice for several other industrial businesses,” he said.

Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, helps produce nearly 70% of India’s electricity, although that share has been reducing with more clean energy entering the grid. Adani’s comments come at a time when the worst squeeze on India’s coal supply in almost four years is deepening a power crisis that’s threatening to stall the world’s fastest-expanding major economy.- Bloomberg