A Reliance Industries Ltd. unit has agreed to acquire Faradion Ltd. as the oil-to-telecom conglomerate controlled by Mukesh Ambani plans to build a renewable ecosystem.
Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd., RIL's wholly owned subsidiary, has signed definitive agreements to acquire a 100% shareholding in the U.K.-based sodium-ion technology developer for an enterprise value of £100 million (about Rs 1,003 crore), according to an exchange filing.
Besides, the RIL subsidiary will invest £25 million (about Rs 251 crore) as growth capital to accelerate commercial rollout.
Faradion's sodium-ion technology provides significant advantages compared to alternative battery technologies, especially lithium-ion and lead acid, RIL said in the filing.
“The sodium-ion technology developed by Faradion provides a globally leading energy storage and battery solution which is safe, sustainable, provides high energy density and is significantly cost competitive,” Ambani, chairman of RIL, was quoted as saying in the statement. “It also has wide use applications from mobility to grid scale storage and back-up power.”
India's largest company by market value plans to build solar photovoltaic panels, batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and electrolysers over the next three years. The plan comes as companies and investors globally switch to sustainable investments to curb greenhouse emissions.
The use of sodium, according to Ambani, will secure India's energy storage requirements for its large renewable energy and fast-growing electric vehicle charging market. “We will work with Faradion management and accelerate its plans to commercialise the technology through building integrated and end-to-end giga scale manufacturing in India.”
Reliance, the filing said, will use Faradion's state-of-the-art technology at its proposed fully integrated energy storage giga factory as part of the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex project at Jamnagar.
Shares of RIL were trading 0.63% higher as of 9:30 a.m. on Friday, in line with the benchmark Nifty 50.
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