MoU Signed between Reliance Industries and Brookfield for renewable energy, decarbonisation equipment in Australia

 New Delhi, 1st August 2023: Brookfield Asset Management has formed an agreement with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL) to investigate potential in renewable energy and decarbonisation equipment in Australia.

According to a RIL release, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Brookfield Asset Management and RIL aims to accelerate and de-risk Australia’s energy transition by encouraging local production of equipment such as PV modules, long duration battery storage technology, and other components critical for wind energy.

Brookfield and Reliance will also collaborate to investigate options for direct capital investment and talent development, as well as to investigate knowledge and skills in the Australian renewable energy sector to assist net zero transition.

Under this MoU, the two will also examine creating advanced operations in Australia to manufacture/assemble equipment for the building of renewable energy projects, in addition to selling equipment to Australian renewable energy companies such as Origin Energy Markets.

Brookfield will also make use of RIL’s expertise in solar panel and long-term battery storage technology.

Brookfield’s agreement with Reliance comes months after it struck a formal agreement with EIG in March to acquire Origin Energy. Regulatory permissions are now pending for the proposed transaction.

Brookfield has proposed an investment of A$20 billion to A$30 billion over the next ten years as part of its planned acquisition. GIC and Temasek, two of Brookfield’s worldwide institutional investors, will also participate to this project.

The agreement between RIL and Brookfield will also fund the delivery of renewable energy equipment needed to generate up to 14 GW of large-scale generation and storage capacity in Australia.

Brookfield Renewable Head of Australia Luke Edwards commented on the MoU with Reliance Industries, “We want to help kickstart a new era in local manufacturing that will benefit domestic renewables developers, including Origin Energy Markets, and many communities around Australia. We are establishing these types of global partnerships in manufacturing now to allow us to get started as quickly as possible given the ever-reducing timeline for Australia to reach its first emissions-reductions targets in 2030.”

Anant Ambani, Director of Reliance New Energy Limited, stated, “At Reliance, we are firmly committed to the mission of creating a global clean energy ecosystem that is both beneficial to humanity and compatible with nature.”

He further said, “Towards this end, Reliance is pursuing opportunities of investment in India and globally with great enthusiasm and passion. We are confident that Reliance and Brookfield will explore avenues in green energy in Australia, accelerating the nation’s transition to a Net Zero future and providing a fillip to the global green energy movement.”