- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
MUKESH Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited on Friday (31) announced the buyout of British battery manufacturer Faradion Limited for £100 million as the oil-to-retail conglomerate continued with the acquisition of end-to-end technology for its multi-billion-dollar clean-energy portfolio.
Reliance New Energy Solar Limited (RNESL) signed definitive agreements to acquire complete shareholding in Faradion for an enterprise value of £100 million and will invest an additional £25 million as growth capital to accelerate the commercial roll-out, the Press Trust of India cited the company as saying in a statement.
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Based out of Sheffield and Oxford, the UK, and with its patented sodium-ion battery technology, Faradion is one of the world’s leading battery technology companies. It is known to have a superior, strategic, wide-reaching and extensive IP portfolio which covers several aspects of sodium-ion technology.
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“Faradion’s sodium-ion technology provides significant advantages compared to alternative battery technologies, especially lithium-ion and lead-acid,” the statement said.
“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, India,” it added.
Speaking about the acquisition, 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.
“Most importantly, it utilises sodium, which will secure India’s energy storage requirements for its large renewable energy and fast-growing EV charging market,” he added.
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.
Chris Wright, chairman and co-founder, Faradion, said, “Dr Jerry Barker, Ashwin Kumaraswamy and I founded Faradion in 2010 to develop sodium-ion technology and bring it to market, with funds from Mercia Asset Management. 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.”
