Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries is acquiring 100% of Faradion Limited (FL), a British battery maker specialising in sodium-ion technology.
Key points to note –
- RNESL is investing 125 mn pounds in the transaction – 100 mn pounds for 100% acquisition of FL and balance 25 mn pounds as growth capital to speed up the commercial rollout.
- Faradion was founded in 2011 to develop commercially viable sodium-ion technology. A quick reference article for sodium-ion vs lithium-ion batteries.
- FL claims to have various IPs for the technology.
- Reliance plans to use FL technology at it’s proposed fully integrated energy storage giga-factory as part of the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex project at Jamnagar, India.
Given Reliance’s recent aggressive push into renewables, the acquisition seems to be in the right direction and can potentially help it in solving another piece of the puzzle – battery technology and that too sodium-ion based, which is increasingly being seen as a potential alternative with multiple advantages over the lithium-ion.
This is not to say that I expect everything to be just working perfect as envisaged. There are always surprises and disappointments in such kinds of aggressive expansion into a completely new field.
However, given Reliance’s track record and Mr Ambani’s execution skills, my hope (of success) here is much higher.