Essar Group plans to invest Rs 30,000 crore over the next four years in setting up a green hydrogen plant at Jamnagar in Gujarat to steer its new phase of growth. The project comprises development of one GW of hydrogen capacity along with associated green molecules capacity of one MTPA over the next four years.
The company will use 4.5 GW of renewable energy of Essar Renewables to split water molecules to produce hydrogen and oxygen.The complex can make green molecules from hydrogen and largely in the biofuels space. The conglomerate will expand its capacity to generate electricity from coal alongside building a renewable energy platform, as it aims to grow to about 10,000 MW over the next three to five years. This includes Essar Power taking expansion of 1,200 MW Salaya-DevBhoomi Dwarka thermal power plant by an additional 1,600 MW.
In green mobility solutions, Essar is focused on building an LNG and electric ecosystem to decarbonise long-haul heavy trucks for cleaner transportation. It has a fleet of 450 to 500 LNG-powered trucks used in various industries for their logistics needs. Replacing diesel in trucks with LNG helps cut CO2 emissions by 30-35 percent. Alongside, the Group also has a fleet of electric trucks.
Essar is also building a retail network to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to trucks. Besides, the Group is producing gas from coal seams from a block in West Bengal.
The metals-to-infrastructure conglomerate is also considering an entry into mining of critical minerals, mainly used in electric vehicle batteries, solar panels and wind-turbine magnets.