RIL arm to invest $50 million in US battery company Ambri
MUMBAI: Over a month after Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced plans to build a gig factory in Jamnagar for the storage of intermittent energy, RIL’s wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), said it will invest $50 million in Ambri Inc, a renewable energy storage company in the United States. RNESL will acquire 42.3 million shares of preferred stock in Ambri.
The investment is part of a combined $144 million investment in Ambri by strategic investors including Paulson & Co Inc and Bill Gates, RNESL said in a statement.
Ambri, founded in 2010, has developed and is looking to commercialize a new, liquid metal grid battery technology by 2022, where Ambri can help lower costs by about half compared to lithium-ion batteries and also has breakthrough in safety with rugged operating condition performance using its calcium and antimony.
RNESL is also in discussions with Ambri for an exclusive collaboration to set up a large-scale battery manufacturing facility in India. The battery systems operate at maximum performance level at 500 degree Celsius. Ambri based systems generate their own heat during use, thereby eliminating the need for auxiliary power for temperature control.
“These systems like to be used – a full charge/discharge cycle at least every two days will keep the system at its operating temperature and higher duty cycles will not increase degradation,” said Morgan Stanley Research in a report.
Addressing shareholders 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..