NEW DELHI: Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd, the newly floated renewable energy unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, along with Bill Gates and other investors have invested USD 144 million in Massachusetts-based Ambri Inc, which makes batteries for power grids.
RNESL would be investing USD 50 million in the USD 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, Ambani had announced a Rs 75,000 crore investment into clean energy, including four Giga factories.
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 and also has a breakthrough in safety with rugged operating condition performance.
The Reliance unit and Ambri are in discussions for an exclusive collaboration to set up a large-scale battery manufacturing facility in India, which could add scale and further bring down costs for the firm's green energy initiative, the statement said.
Demand for battery storage is growing as countries worldover look for low-carbon energy sources such as solar and wind.
In addition to RNESL and Gates, the Microsoft co-founder who is Ambri's largest shareholder, investors in the latest round also included Fortistar, Goehring & Rozencwajg Associates and Japan Energy Fund.
The USD 144 million will help Ambri "commercialise and grow its long-duration energy storage systems business globally," the statement said.
"Based on patented technology and designed to last between 4-24 hours, Ambri's long-duration energy storage systems will break through the cost, longevity and safety barriers associated with lithium-ion batteries used in grid-scale stationary storage applications.
They will enable a crucial energy storage solution capable of supporting the increasing amounts of renewable energy being integrated into electric power grids," it said.
Addressing shareholders in June this year, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani had announced plans to build 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.
"We are exploring new and advanced electrochemical technologies that can be used for such large-scale grid batteries to store the energy that we will create.
We will collaborate with global leaders in battery technology to achieve the highest reliability for round-the-clock power availability through a combination of generation, storage, and grid connectivity," Ambani had said.
Ambri's systems are particularly suited for high-usage applications, such as shifting energy from daytime solar generation to evening and morning peak load times.
The company is securing customers for large-scale projects with commercial operations in 2023 and beyond.
Ambri has entered into a long-term antimony supply agreement with Perpetua Resources - the largest shareholder is Paulson & Co Inc.
At room temperature, Ambri's cell is non-conductive and its active materials are solid metals and a solid electrolyte.
The battery systems operate at a maximum performance level at 500deg C.
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.
Paulson & Co.
Inc, founded in 1994, is a private investment management firm headquartered in New York.
The firm invests in public and private market securities across different sectors and industries.