SBI UK’s green housing offers
FARADION’S SODIUM-ION TECHNOLOGY WILL BOOST AMBANI’S RENEWABLE ENERGY PLANS
A UNIT of India’s Reliance Industries has acquired British battery maker Faradion for £100 million, the Indian company said last Friday (31).
Reliance New Energy Solar signed agreements to acquire a 100 per cent shareholding in Faradion and will invest £25m to accelerate the commercial roll-out, the statement added.
Based in Sheffield and Oxford and with its patented sodium-ion battery technology, Faradion is said to be one of the leading global battery technology companies.
Since October 10, the Reliance unit has been acquiring or gaining access to technology that can reduce the cost of renewable energy production, especially in solar energy generation.
It has put $1.2 billion (£0.89bn) in partnerships with REC, NexWafe, Sterling and Wilson, Stiesal and Ambri to acquire the expertise and technology portfolio to start to build a renewable energy ecosystem through solar, batteries and hydrogen.
“Faradion’s sodium-ion technology provides significant advantages compared to alternative battery technologies, especially lithium-ion and lead-acid,” it said. The advantages include no dependence and use of cobalt, lithium, copper or graphite.
“All of this combines to offer a next-generation, high-density, safe, sustainable and low-cost energy storage technology solution,” it said. “Reliance will use Faradion’s stateof-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.”
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani said the acquisition will strengthen the firm’s ambition to 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 important, it utilises sodium, which will secure India’s energy storage requirements for its large renewable energy and fast-growing EV charging market.”
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 transport sector,” he added.
James Quinn, the CEO of Faradion, said, “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”.
“Becoming part of the Reliance group validates the incredible work our team has done. Together with Reliance, Faradion can bring British innovation to India and globally, as the world increasingly looks beyond lithium. We look forward to being part of India’s Net Zero mission.”
Reliance targets solar manufacturing of 100 GW and green hydrogen costs of $1 per kg by 2030. It plans to spend $10bn (£7.4bn) on the new energy business over the next three years towards achieving these goals.
mobility and
THE State Bank of India (UK) Ltd has launched a range of green mortgage products for applicants who are purchasing or re-mortgaging property that has an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ EPC rating.
The product will be available for all qualifying SBI UK mortgage applicants.
SBI UK celebrated its centenary in 2021 and the bank has expanded to 12 retail branches across the country.
Sanjay Pandey, the executive director of SBI UK said: “Everyone at SBI (UK) recognises that we all need to be making changes to the way we live and work to protect the environment. The introduction of green mortgages is one of the many steps the bank is taking towards the same.”