Reliance signs agreement with Danish company Stiesdal to manufacture Hydrogen Electrolysers

Representational image. AFP

Reliance New Energy Solar (RNESL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries has partnered with Danish company Stiesdal A/S to develop and manufacture hydrogen electrolysers.

The agreement was signed during a state visit of Denmark to India and announced in the presence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mette Frederiksen, prime minister of Denmark.

Stiesdal, founded by Henrik Stiesdal, a wind power pioneer and leading thought leader in global renewable industry, creates and sells technologies, which will help reduce climate change.

The technology will help achieve RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani’s aim of 1-1-1 for green-hydrogen production (which means making one kilo of green hydrogen available for $1 inside of one decade).

RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani, speaking after inking the deal, was quoted by News18, as saying: “We at Reliance see this cooperation agreement with Stiesdal as yet another opportunity to implement our philosophy of ‘Caring for the Planet’ and ‘Caring for the People’. It is an important step towards fulfilling our commitment to accelerate India’s transition to green energy benefitting from our vast solar energy sources and scaling up innovative and leading technologies to meet this objective. We aim to leverage Stiesdal’s impressive portfolio of climate technologies to serve India market and work together to make this portfolio a global pace setter.”

Henrik Stiesdal, CEO of Stiesdal A/S, was also happy with the deal and was quoted as saying, “We are excited to enter into this agreement with Reliance New Energy Solar Limited, the New Energy platform of India’s largest industrial company… For us, there could be no greater impact than seeing our technology scaled up for use in the world’s largest democracy.”

The move comes as Mukesh Ambani had announced plans of setting up a Giga factory to manufacture electrolysers in Jamnagar, Gujarat.

Through this agreement, RNESL and Stiesdal will combine their strengths and capabilities and collaborate to further advance the technology development of hydrogen electrolysers.

As part of the deal, RNESL and Stiesdal have also agreed to extend their collaboration to development and implementation of other path-breaking climate change technologies which include offshore wind energy, next-generation fuel cells for conversion of hydrogen to electricity for mobile and static electricity generation, long-duration energy storage and production of carbon-negative fuels.

RNESL, on 12 October, also announced that it would acquire Germany’s NexWafe GmbH, for €25 million.

NexWafe in a statement “announced the induction of RNESL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (Reliance) as a strategic lead investor in its €39 million ($45 million) Series C financing round with an investment of EUR 25 million (USD 29 million) in phase one”.

NexWafe is developing and producing monocrystalline silicon wafers grown directly from inexpensive raw materials, going directly from the gas phase to finished wafers.

As per a PTI report, this proprietary process obviates the need for costly and energy-intensive intermediate steps such as polysilicon production and ingot pulling on which traditional wafer manufacturing relies.

Speaking on the deal, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance, had said the partnership with NexWafe was a step towards meeting the affordable green energy needs of India’s rapidly growing economy.

“Our investment in NexWafe signals an important step towards accelerating India’s green energy transition and positioning India as a global leader in photovoltaic manufacturing,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.

These deals come in quick succession. Just on 10 October, Reliance announced its $771 million buyout of Norway-based solar panel manufacturer REC Solar Holdings and a purchase of a 40 percent stake in Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s Sterling & Wilson Solar.