Reliance New Energy invests in Ambri

Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), the newly-floated renewable energy unit of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), along with Bill Gates and other investors has invested $144 million in Massachusetts-based Ambri Inc, which makes batteries for power grids.

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, Ambani had announced 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.