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Asia's Richest Man Plans To Invest $76 Billion in Green Projects (bloomberg.com) 34

The conglomerate led by Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, announced plans to invest $76 billion toward clean energy projects, dwarfing an earlier commitment of $10 billion by the world's biggest fossil-fuel billionaire. From a report: Reliance Industries, controlled by Ambani, has signed pacts with the state government of Gujarat for a total investment of 5.96 trillion rupees ($81 billion), according to an exchange filing Thursday. Of this, about 5 trillion rupees would be used over the next 15 years to build 100 gigawatts of renewable power projects and a green hydrogen network while 600 billion rupees will be for factories making solar modules, hydrogen electrolyzers, fuel cells and storage batteries, the filing said. The remaining sum is to be spent in the retail-to-refining group's new and existing projects, including the upgrade of its telecom network for 5G services and expansion of its consumer retail businesses. Reliance has already "started the process of scouting land" for its renewable energy power projects and has requested the Gujarat administration for 450,000 acres (182,110 hectares) in the arid Kutch region. Though the investment pact is just a memorandum of understanding right now, it outlines the scope of Ambani's green ambitions and is a big step up from the $10 billion investment over three years he had announced in June. Ambani is in the midst of transforming his fossil fuel-fed empire and pivoting it toward green energy and digital technology.
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Asia's Richest Man Plans To Invest $76 Billion in Green Projects

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  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday January 13, 2022 @04:21PM (#62170629)

    The thing with green projects is that over time they become far more valuable then projects that consume more resources.
    Say buying an Electric Car and paying 10k more for over an equivalent Ice car, that you plan to use for 10 years.
    The cheaper ICE car, needs to be filled with Gas over its life span you are spending close to 20k to fill up with gas, while you may spend 5k over 10 years to charge it. Giving you a net 5k in savings.

    Or if you sustainable lumber where the trees can grow back before you finish cutting down original ones down. So you don't need to keep buying new land over and over again.

    The key thing that rich people have over the poor, is they can afford to spend more upfront to save in the long run, while the poor, have to spend more over time, because they need the low upfront cost.

    • Say buying an Electric Car and paying 10k more for over an equivalent Ice car, that you plan to use for 10 years.
      The cheaper ICE car, needs to be filled with Gas over its life span you are spending close to 20k to fill up with gas,

      And then after 10 years you need to pay $30k for a new battery for the electric car so...

      I love electric cars but let's not ignore the hidden cost. I have an ICE car that is over 10 years old and pretty happy I don't have a massive outlay on a battery to look forward to at any po

      • No mere mortal's EV has a $30k battery pack now, and sure as hell won't have a $30k battery pack later, especially if they look for replacements from 3rd parties rather than the dealer once the warranty is expired (or if the dealer is being unreasonable, *cough* TESLA *cough*)

        If you buy a Porsche Taycan then Porsche might charge you $30k for a battery pack, but that's not a general EV problem.

        • No mere mortal's EV has a $30k battery pack now, and sure as hell won't have a $30k battery pack later

          Right now, it's ALREADY $22k [electrek.co] , but in 10 years? Perhaps you've heard about inflation? That is actually a hugely low estimate, especially if you know anything at all about the mining supply of materials batteries use. I was being extremely generous there.

          I would say you need to pay more attention to the internet but I wouldn't wish that on anyone, so I forgive you for not being on top of increases alread

          • First of all, an $80k+ Tesla S is hardly a mere mortal's EV. Second, perhaps you've heard of economies of scale, technological advancement, especially in recycling? It's why the cost of batteries has been going down instead of up, why EVs are becoming cheaper over time instead of more expensive, and why the price of batteries, certainly if inflation adjusted and most likely even not accounting for any plausible levels of inflation, will continue to decrease.

          • by tragedy ( 27079 )

            Right now, it's ALREADY $22k [electrek.co] , but in 10 years? Perhaps you've heard about inflation? That is actually a hugely low estimate, especially if you know anything at all about the mining supply of materials batteries use. I was being extremely generous there.

            This is all obviously in adjusted dollars. If your real wealth doesn't increase, then sure, there's a problem, but it's one that's completely independent of the choice between ICE and EV. Also, if there is high inflation and you paid for the car with a loan, then the real amount of the loan is going down over time, while the real cost of gas would be rising with inflation, so you would actually save even more money. You're just grasping at straws.

            • This is all obviously in adjusted dollars. If your real wealth doesn't increase, then sure, there's a problem

              Please tell me where I can work that I get a 7% raise every year? Because that's what you need to even stay even with inflation.

              You know how long it takes $22k to reach $30k at just 4% inflation? Just 8 years. So if you are not getting well over a 3% raise every year you are falling behind and that 10 year batter replacement will cost you more even in adjusted terms.

              And again, the costs of that ba

              • by tragedy ( 27079 )

                Please tell me where I can work that I get a 7% raise every year? Because that's what you need to even stay even with inflation.

                Is it now? Because that sounds like an unrealistic number that you just made up that is clearly not the average rate of inflation. Also not really related in any way to the point. This was about ICE cars versus EVs, why would their pricing be affected differently by inflation?

                You know how long it takes $22k to reach $30k at just 4% inflation? Just 8 years. So if you are not getting well over a 3% raise every year you are falling behind and that 10 year batter replacement will cost you more even in adjusted terms.

                But so will the price adjusted replacement ICE, so I'm still failing to see any point from you. This is about comparing total cost of ownership and you're talking about inflation, which is going to affect both ICE vehicles and EVs. For

                • Is it now? Because that sounds like an unrealistic number

                  Don't pay attention to the news do ya? [cnbc.com]

                  I you think 7% inflation is "unrealistic" it says to me you live an incredibly sheltered life, totally out of touch with the real world and costs thereof.

                  I didn't bother to read the rest of your post since you are too ignorant to listen to, or even frankly to try and educate. Anything else you said is probably just as poorly informed.

                  I'll leave you to responses beyond this one, you can waste your own time.

                  You ha

                  • by tragedy ( 27079 )

                    Don't pay attention to the news do ya? [cnbc.com]

                    I you think 7% inflation is "unrealistic" it says to me you live an incredibly sheltered life, totally out of touch with the real world and costs thereof.

                    It's normal when quoting just part of a sentence without the entire thing to use the ellipsis (...) or square brackets ([]) to indicate where you've cut off the start or middle or end of a sentence or where you've cut out a part to replace with something else.
                    I should note that the original end of my sentence that you cut was: "...that you just made up that is clearly not the average rate of inflation".
                    Now, cropping a sentence for the relevant part is normally ok, as long as you're not changing the meaning

          • "Right now, it's ALREADY $22k [electrek.co] , but in 10 years? Perhaps you've heard about inflation? " - ten years is a long time in battery development too, if they double the density then you only need half the battery to do the same job.
            • ten years is a long time in battery development too

              It's not really, how many amazing advances in battery tech you were hearing about ten years ago have we actually seen?

              • by tragedy ( 27079 )

                Storage capacities have increased about 50% in the last decade. Sure that's not a miraculous overnight change, but it is improvement. It's a bit like a "cure" for cancer. We keep hearing about new treatments all the time, but cancer is not miraculously cured overnight. Instead treatment just gets incrementally better so that patients survive longer and longer each year and more and more patients go into remission. It doesn't mean that all those attempts to cure cancer have been fruitless.

      • by tragedy ( 27079 )

        And then after 10 years you need to pay $30k for a new battery for the electric car so...

        Couldn't you just buy a new EV? Why are we pretending that ICE cars don't need replacement, but EV cars do? If you did end up spending 10K less on balance over that ten years and you saved it, you would obviously be better off and in a position to buy a new car.

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          And then after 10 years you need to pay $30k for a new battery for the electric car so...

          And why do we assume an EV battery has a 10 year lifespan? The EVs that made it that far have over 90% capacity available, which is still considerable. I certainly won't pay for a new battery pack if I only lost 10% capacity. That and most EVs have your standard 10 year/100,000km "powertrain" warranty (which includes battery if it drops below 70% capacity).

          It's why recycling an EV battery is so hard - the recyclers out

  • by Khopesh ( 112447 ) on Thursday January 13, 2022 @04:30PM (#62170663) Homepage Journal
    Wikipedia cites Ambani [wikipedia.org] as having a net worth of US$90 billion as of 2021-12-02. Then again, if this $81B investment doesn't pan out, I'm sure he can liquidate it and get back at least some small percent of it, and even if he can't reclaim a dime, he'd still be left with US$9B plus whatever golden parachute he has when Reliance Industries lets him go.
  • Fine print (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Areyoukiddingme ( 1289470 ) on Thursday January 13, 2022 @05:55PM (#62170921)

    Of this, about 5 trillion rupees would be used over the next 15 years to build 100 gigawatts of renewable power projects and a green hydrogen network...

    Yeah no. It's a fossil fuel company. A "green hydrogen network" is a fig leaf for hydrogen via steam reformation of natural gas, which will be the vast majority of the output. Reliance Industries isn't about to give up their massive investment in oil and gas. They're just going to hide it better. Greenwashing is too easy.

  • You just have to assume, right?

    But that's the problem. Renewables are just another industry producing something with no plan for recycling of the product at end of life and no mention of the by-products of production and their disposal/handling. That will be 'someone else's problem' presumably. Which is the thinking that got the planet in to its current state.

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