India’s Reliance New Energy Solar Limited (RNESL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has joined Bill Gates and other investors to back a US energy storage company.

They are investing a total of $144 million (£104m) in Massachusetts-based Ambri to help the company commercialise and grow its long duration energy storage systems business globally.

RNESL is investing $50 million (£36m) out of the total to acquire 42.3 million shares.

Ambri’s energy storage systems, designed to last between four to 24 hours, are expected to break through the cost, longevity and safety barriers associated with lithium-ion batteries used in grid-scale stationary storage applications.

They will be capable of supporting increasing amounts of renewable energy being integrated into electricity grids.

RNESL and Ambri are also in discussions for an exclusive collaboration to set up a large-scale battery manufacturing facility in India.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said: “We are exploring new and advanced electro-chemical technologies that can be used for such large-scale grid batteries to store the energy that we will create. We will collaborate with global leaders in battery technology to achieve the highest reliability for round-the-clock power availability through a combination of generation, storage and grid connectivity.”