Reliance invests USD 50 mn in battery maker Ambri

RNESL would be investing $50 million in the $144 million financing round, which Ambri will use to build a manufacturing facility and commercialize its technology, the company said in a statement.

The investment, which will give RNESL 42.3 million shares of preferred stock in Ambri, adds another piece to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s energy transition jigsaw.

In June, the Reliance Industries Chairman had announced a Rs 75,000 crore investment into clean energy, including four Giga factories in Jamnagar - one of them for the storage of intermittent energy, as part of the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex project.

Ambri, which can supply energy storage systems between 10 megawatt-hours to more than 2-gigawatt hours, will make calcium and antimony electrode-based cells that can last over 20 years with minimal degradation and are considered more economical than lithium-ion batteries.

The American firm is looking to commercialise its liquid metal grid battery technology by 2022. This technology holds promise to lower costs by about half compared to lithium-ion batteries.

Meanwhile, RIL is weighing a bid for Deutsche Telekom AG’s Netherlands subsidiary, said an agency report citing people familiar with the matter. The conglomerate is working with an adviser to evaluate an offer for T-Mobile Netherlands BV, the people said, asking not to be identified.