Reliance New Energy Solar makes big investments in less than a year

RNESL will undertake activities related to solar-energy business

Reliance New Energy Solar (RNESL), incorporated on June 7 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is not even a year old. Yet, it has made a bold foray into the solar business by buying REC Solar for $771 million, which has many promising technologies in its kitty.

REC Solar has been granted 446 patents in utility and design, and has another 154 patents awaiting clearance.

RNESL is to undertake activities relating to solar energy, including furthering RIL’s considerably big ambitions in its solar-power business. RIL hopes to generate 100GW annually by 2030, towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to generate 450GW of renewable energy by the same year.

This August, RNESL had participated in a $144 million investment in long-energy-storage-systems maker Ambri, along with Paulson & Co, Bill Gates and other investors. RNESL is to invest $50 million to acquire 4.3 million shares of preferred stock in Ambri. The two companies are also in talks to build a large-scale battery-manufacturing facility in India, which could bring down costs for RIL’s green-energy push.

RIL’s new-energy vision, which was shared at the conglomerate’s annual general meeting (AGM) in June, includes the setting up of a 5,000-acre fully-integrated complex in Jamnagar. The Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex will have gigafactories to manufacture solar photovoltaic cells, advanced energy storage batteries, electrolysers and fuel cells.

Anant Ambani is one of the directors of RNESL and Reliance New Solar Energy (RNSEL), which was incorporated on the same day as RNESL to handle activities related to solar energy.