Reliance, Brookfield agree to explore RE opportunities

New Delhi Reliance Industries Ltd on Tuesday said it has signed a pact with Brookfield Asset Management to explore opportunities for setting up factories to manufacture renewable energy and decarbonisation equipment in Australia.

Brookfield will work with Reliance to explore avenues of direct capital investment and evaluate setting up operations in Australia to make or assemble renewable energy equipment and supply, the company said in a statement. The Australia investment will complement giga-factories that Reliance is building at Jamnagar in Gujarat to produce solar cells and modules, energy storage batteries, fuel cells and green hydrogen.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Reliance and Brookfield "aims to both accelerate and de-risk Australia's energy transition by enabling it to locally produce clean energy equipment such as PV modules, long duration battery storage and components for wind energy," it said. Under the terms of the MoU, Brookfield will work with Reliance to explore avenues of direct capital investment and development of skills, knowledge and expertise in the renewable energy sector of Australia to facilitate the nation's transition to a net-zero future. "Reliance has strong expertise in solar panel technology and long duration battery storage technology. It is currently in the process of setting up one of the world's largest integrated renewable energy manufacturing facilities in India," the statement said. The MoU with Reliance is one of the key initiatives being undertaken by Brookfield to bring global manufacturing technology and expertise to Australia.

In March this year, it signed a binding agreement with EIG to acquire Origin Energy. The proposed acquisition is currently going through the relevant approvals processes. As part of its proposed acquisition of the Origin Energy Markets division, Brookfield along with its institutional partners and global institutional investors GIC and Temasek have set out a plan to invest between A$20 billion and A$30 billion over the next ten years to accelerate its energy transition.