Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd. (RNESL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), has announced an investvmet of $50 million to acquire 42.3 million shares of preferred stock in Ambri Inc., an energy storage company based in Massachusetts, USA.
This is part of a $144 million investment that RNESL, strategic investors Paulson & Co. Inc., Bill Gates, and a few other investors, have committed to make in Ambri.
“The investment will help the company commercialise and grow its long-duration energy storage systems business globally,” RIL said in a statement.
“Based on patented technology and designed to last between 4-24 hours, Ambri’s long- duration energy storage systems will break through the cost, longevity and safety barriers associated with lithium-ion batteries used in grid-scale stationary storage applications,” it added.
“They will enable a crucial energy storage solution capable of supporting the increasing amounts of renewable energy being integrated into electric power grids,” it further added.
RNESL and Ambri are also in discussion for an exclusive collaboration to set up a large-scale battery manufacturing facility in India, which could add scale and further bring down costs for Reliance’s green energy initiative.
In June this year, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani had announced plans to build a Giga Factory in Jamnagar for the storage of intermittent energy, as part of the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex project.
Ambri can cater to projects that require energy storage systems from 10 MWh to over 2 GWh.
The company will manufacture calcium and antimony electrode-based cells and containerised systems that are more economical than lithium-ion batteries, capable of operating safely in any climatic condition without requiring supplemental air conditioning and meant to last for over 20 years with minimal degradation, RIL said.
Ambri systems are particularly suited for high-usage applications such as shifting energy from daytime solar generation to evening and morning peak-load times. The company is securing customers for large-scale projects with commercial operation in 2023 and beyond, it added.
Published - August 10, 2021 09:11 am IST
