Indian multinational conglomerate company, Reliance Industries’ solar unit, Reliance New Energy Solar Limited (RNESL), is set to buy sodium-ion battery technology provider Faradion Ltd for an enterprise value of $135 million.
RNESL, which has signed definitive agreements to acquire 100 percent of Faradion, will also be investing $33.7 million in the company to expedite the commercial rollout, according to an exchange filing.
Reliance said that the Faradion acquisition will put India at the forefront of leading battery technologies. It will also help to secure India’s energy storage requirements for its large renewable energy and fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) charging market.
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. In addition, it has wide use applications from mobility to grid-scale storage and backup power.
The transaction marks the sixth green deal for the retail-to-refining conglomerate that has committed to invest $10 billion in sustainable energy initiatives over three years.
Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, aims to transform the Indian company, which still gets nearly 60 percent of its revenue from fossil fuel-related businesses and aims to make it carbon net-zero by 2035.
Reliance will incorporate 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 in Gujarat.
The Indian conglomerate is also planning to construct four Giga factories for making electrolyzers for producing green hydrogen, solar modules, fuel cells and storage batteries.
Further, Mr. Ambani remarked that the deal means that RNESL will work with Faradion and accelerate its plans to commercialize the technology through building integrated and end-to-end Giga scale manufacturing in India. The South Asian country has a target of creating 450 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030 and turning net carbon zero by 2070.
