“Storage is becoming the way forward in India”
The Battery Show India has grown rapidly over the past couple of years. What does this say about India’s energy storage industry?
The whole idea of linking the battery show with REI [Renewable Energy India Expo] was simple chemistry between the two. There has been such a palpable shift in the government’s thoughts and actions in the trend of issuing tenders, that now every large-scale solar or wind project is tendered with battery storage to be built as well, and similar requirements are expected for the residential and commercial sectors.
Storage is becoming the way forward in India. I see a lot of large companies realizing that it’s time to get into this space. When we started looking into adding the battery show a few years ago, so many of them expressed that, yes, this is the future and the segment we want to expand into.
Is India’s industry ready for this scale-up of storage and the close collaborations between solar, wind, and other sectors it will involve?
India is indeed on the right track. We are a little behind currently, but taking big strides in our energy transition. Looking at where India was 10 years back, few could have imagined that we would reach this level today. India has built close to 100 GW in solar manufacturing capacity, and we’re talking about export to other regions.
I give huge credit to the current government for opening the doors of demand with large-scale tenders, with a scheme to bring solar to 10 million rooftops, besides green hydrogen and solarization of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Today there is no discussion of energy without solar at its center.
India has shown it can support rapid growth of RE technologies. And now for storage, the government is also giving clear messaging. Now most of the solar tenders include a battery storage in-built clause and there are more for standalone storage as well. In Q1 2025 alone, India issued 6.1 GW of standalone energy storage tenders – 64% of all utility-scale storage tenders, exceeding 2024’s total capacity.
Another growing sector here is data centers, which are real power guzzlers. With AI, machine learning and digitization at its heart, you need a very high-powered data center that’s running 24/7. That’s another area where I see – in times to come – a lot of renewable energy being consumed. There’s a great market and India is inching towards it. This momentum is creating opportunities for developers, financiers, manufacturers, and grid operators – but challenges around power purchase agreements, supply chain risks, and project bankability remain.
Global solar manufacturing faces big challenges this year, with oversupply and low prices. How do you see Indian manufacturers coping in this environment?
We know that there is oversupply in China, and that is a challenge. In India, the government is there to support, not just to give benefits to the manufacturers, but to ensure that they have the right environment to grow.
Alongside creating demand through tenders and incentives, there is the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (ALMM), that has triggered domestic manufacturing at a huge scale and ensured that the market is there for these made-in-India products.
Beginning next year, the ALMM will also apply to cell manufacturing, further boosting the market. Today our cell capacity in India is around 26 GW, while module manufacturing has shot up close to 100 GW. But now with added protection for cells, big companies are venturing upstream into this space as well.
Next will be inverters, and this year I see a lot of the Chinese inverter makers evaluating manufacturing in India, because they see that it is a long-term market. The module makers didn’t make this move, and now you don’t see them in India, but you will see many Chinese and other international inverter manufacturers setting up in India.
You mentioned the 10 million rooftops scheme and lots of commercial solar projects as well. Do you see storage requirements being added to these?
India is moving towards implementing storage requirements for the rooftop solar PV segment also. It’s part of a broader push to address the challenge of grid stability.
You can create a mandate that all implementing agencies and state utilities must incorporate storage, but when you talk about rooftop it becomes a little more challenging, because this segment has just started growing in scale. A requirement for energy storage will lead to a bit of an increase in cost, and it is still a very price sensitive segment currently.
But with storage there’s a value-added benefit also, it will provide homeowners with enhanced self-consumption or backup power during outages, etc. The market may need time to establish itself, but storage will play a critical role in distributed generation as well.
India is embarking on an ambitious plan for domestic battery manufacturing. How do you see that taking shape?
We have no choice but to go for it. When it comes to battery manufacturing, especially lithium-ion, India is rather behind. Particularly on the availability of lithium – there are four or five good sites in India where they have found huge reserves. But from finding those reserves to reaching a state when you’re lithium-ready is a huge task.
India is trying to broaden its base by investing not only in its own lithium mines, but also striking strategic deals in other regions like Australia and South America.
EVs are another reason we need to go for it. The government is targeting 30% EVs on Indian roads by 2030, and they need batteries as well. We don’t have the capacity today, but I see the incentives coming, and the large corporates especially are moving into this domain with clear, implementable objectives.
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