Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) said that they would “accelerate” the company’s commitment to investing Rs 75,000 crore towards establishing a New Energy manufacturing ecosystem. RIL announced acquiring a 79.4 per cent stake in the US-based developer of software management tools for solar energy generation, SenseHawk. RIL’s subsidiary Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL) acquired a 10.37 per cent stake in Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s SWERL. With this, it now holds a 40 per cent stake in SWERL. The acquisition started in October 2021. This acquisition is expected to give the company an upper hand in the design, procurement, and project management of renewable energy projects.
RNESL bought UK-based battery technology company Faradion Ltd for $135 million. Faradion holds patents on sodium-ion batteries, often described as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries. RNESL acquired a 100 per cent stake in the Norway-based REC Solar Holdings AS from China’s Bluestar Group. The deal was finalized for $771 million. REC specializes in making solar panels, photovoltaic cells, and modules. Its business is spread across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia-Pacific. RIL sourced the world’s first consignment of “carbon-neutral” oil from Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV). OLCV is a division of US oil major Occidental. This transaction is a first step in the creation of a new market for climate-differentiated crude oil.