India’s Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL) has signed definitive agreements to acquire UK-based sodium-ion battery technology company Faradion for an enterprise value of £100 million.
RNESL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), will acquire 100 per cent shareholding in Faradion Limited, with plans to invest £25 million as primary investment to fund and accelerate commercial roll out. RIL said the acquisition will help secure India’s energy storage requirements for its large renewable energy and fast-growing electric vehicle (EV) charging market.
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Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, said: “This will further strengthen and build upon our ambition to create one of the most advanced and integrated New Energy ecosystem 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. Most importantly, it utilises sodium, which will secure India’s energy storage requirements for its large renewable energy and fast-growing EV charging market.”
Reliance will incorporate 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 in Gujarat.
Ambani said that the deal means that RNESL will work with Faradion 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 mobility and transport sector,” added Ambani.
Based out of Sheffield and Oxford in the UK, Faradion is among the world’s leading battery technology companies. It claims that the company’s sodium-ion technology provides significant advantages compared to lithium-ion technology, including: greater sustainability, a patented zero-volt safe transport and storage capability and immense opportunity for scalability. The total cost of ownership is comparable to lead-acid, and performance at par with lithium-ion phosphate, both with runway for further improvements.
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“Faradion has been one of the first to champion sodium-ion battery technology,” said James Quinn, CEO of Faradion.
“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 in advancing sodium-ion technology,” said Quinn.
Dr Chris Wright, Chairman and Co-Founder of 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.”
Faradion’s proprietary sodium-ion battery technology claims to deliver leading-edge, cost-effective solutions for a broad range of applications, including mobility, energy storage, backup power and energy in remote locations.
