A subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries will invest US$12 million to acquire a 20% stake in Caelux Corporation, a California-based company working on perovskite solar technology.
Reliance New Energy Limited has also entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Caelux for technical collaboration and commercialisation of the latter’s technology.
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A spin-out from the California Institute of Technology, Caelux plans to construct a pilot plant in the Los Angeles metropolitan area to demonstrate the feasibility of scaling perovskites. Its commercialisation roadmap consists of developing production sites in the US, Asia and Latin America.
Reliance Industries, which announced last month it will start production at a 10GW solar cell and module factory in the Indian state of Gujarat by 2024, said it will be able leverage Caelux’s technology to produce more powerful and lower-cost modules.
“We believe Caelux’s proprietary perovskite-based solar technology provides us with access to next leg of innovation in crystalline solar modules,” said Mukesh Ambani, managing director of Reliance Industries.
The acquisition does not require any regulatory approval and is expected to be completed by the end of September.
Since announcing a US$10.1 billion clean energy plan last year, Reliance Industries has acquired module manufacturer REC Group and invested in German wafer technology company NexWafe.
The conglomerate has also secured funding from India’s production-linked incentive programme to set up module manufacturing in the country.