Reliance Industries picks Norwegian partner Nel ASA for electrolyser tech

The agreement provides RIL an exclusive license for Nel's alkaline electrolysers in India, manufacture for captive purposes globally

Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) on Tuesday said Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser AS, a fully owned subsidiary of Nel ASA, has entered into a technology licensing agreement with it for electrolyser manufacturing in India.

“The agreement provides RIL with an exclusive license for Nel’s alkaline electrolysers in India and also allows RIL to manufacture Nel’s alkaline electrolysers for captive purposes globally,” the statement shared with the exchanges said.

Through the agreement, RIL gets access to Nel’s leading, proven technology platform for manufacturing electrolysers, the statement said. The release also added that both partners will also collaborate on future performance improvements and cost optimisation through research and development (R&D), value engineering, standardisation and modularisation to improve the competitiveness of the alkaline technology platform.

 

Nel’s president and chief executive officer, Håkon Volldal, said, “Nel will through this agreement also get a revenue stream from a rapidly growing market Nel could not have accessed on its own.”

According to the agreement, Nel can procure equipment from Reliance for its own projects. Nel will continue to serve the Indian market with technology platforms that are not covered by the agreement.

RIL is building a Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex over 5,000 acres in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. Part of the complex are different giga factories, including an electrolyser manufacturing factory, for the production of green hydrogen. The company had earlier said it is collaborating with Denmark’s Stiesdal A/S on the manufacturing of their HydroGen Electrolysers in India.

Earlier this year, RIL was also allotted 300 megawatt (MW) capacity under the government’s production linked incentive scheme (PLI) for electrolyser manufacturing. RIL aims, according to the company’s earlier statements, to progressively commence transition from grey/blue hydrogen to green hydrogen by 2025, after proving its cost and performance targets.