Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) plans to commission the first phase of its 20 gigawatts solar module manufacturing unit by March 2024.

The company is setting up a solar photovoltaic giga factory in Jamnagar that will have a total capacity of 20 gigawatts, which will be commissioned in four phases of 5 gigawatts each.

The production of its factory in Jamnagar will be done by its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance New Energy Solar.

The factory will be based on REC technology, in which RIL has acquired a 100% stake in Norway-headquartered REC Solar in 2021 for Rs 5,800 crore.

REC provides high-efficiency solar panels with Heterojunction Technology (HJT) that RIL plans to increase the module efficiency to 26% by 2026 from the current 23% and plans further to improve it to 28% through further innovation.

The company has signed an agreement with China-based Suzhou Maxwell Technologies to buy a high-efficiency production line for HJT cells for 4.8 gigawatts of capacity.

Reliance Industries is planning to commission its 5 gigawatts manufacturing capacity by March 2024 and then will scale it up to 10 gigawatts and then double it to 20 gigawatts by 2026.