Ambani commits GBP25m to commercialise sodium-ion technology
Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL) has signed definitive agreements to acquire 100% shareholding in Faradion Ltd, a sodium-ion technology in the United Kingdom, for an enterprise value of GBP100 million.
An additional GBP25 million will be invested as growth capital to accelerate the commercial roll-out Faradion technology, said RNESL’s parent company Reliance Industries Ltd, which will spend Rs.60,000 crore to construct four ‘Giga factories’ for clean energy over the next three years.
Based out of Sheffield and Oxford in the UK and with its patented sodium-ion battery technology, Faradion has a competitively superior, strategic, wide-reaching and extensive IP portfolio, covering several aspects of sodium-ion technology.
Reliance 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.
RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said the acquisition will further strengthen and build upon the firm’s ambition to create one of the most advanced and integrated new energy ecosystems and put India at the forefront of leading battery technologies.
“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 back-up power,” he said in a statement on 31 Dec 2021.
Ambani said Reliance 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.
“We believe this will be one of our many steps that will also enable, accelerate and secure large scale energy storage requirements for our Indian partners, developing and transforming India’s EV mobility and transport sector.”
“Faradion has been one of the first to champion sodium-ion battery technology. Reliance is the perfect partner for supporting Faradion’s growth in the rapidly expanding Indian market and to jointly speed up the transformation of the global energy market,” said James Quinn, CEO of Faradion.
Faradion Chairman and Co-Founder Chris Wright added, “This deal with Reliance firmly establishes Faradion’s sodium-ion batteries as an integral part of the global value chain for cheaper, cleaner, more sustainable energy for decades to come”.
Reliance is to invest Rs.60,000 crore to construct four ‘Giga factories’ to make integrated solar PV modules, electrolysers, fuel cells and batteries to store energy from the grid over the next three years. The site of these plants will be located at the new 5,000 acres Green Energy Giga Complex in Jamnagar. An additional Rs 15,000 crore will be used for investments across the value chain, technology, and partnerships for the new energy business.
Faradion was started in 2011, by Dr Jerry Barker, Dr Chris Wright and Ashwin Kumaraswamy, to develop and bring to market sodium-ion technology. It has developed a strategic, wide-reaching and extensive IP portfolio, comprising 21 patent families covering Na-ion technology. fiinews.com
