The time has come for India to define its way forward in the field of renewable energy. For the past few years, the nation has made it evident that it is possible to deploy renewable energy on a large scale. But now the challenge is not about generating more and more energy using renewables. The need of the hour is to generate such renewable energy that will serve the purpose.
And this can be done through energy storage.
There is a target to achieve 500 GW of electricity generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by the year 2030. With the increase in the amount of renewable capacity, there will be the requirement of making the electricity generated by renewables match the consumption pattern. This will be very difficult since solar energy is abundant during the daytime while wind energy depends on weather conditions.
Energy storage can help to achieve this goal.
As per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the total energy storage requirement of India will go up from 82.37 GWh in 2026-27 to 411.4 GWh in 2031-32. As per Central Electricity Authority, the requirement of Battery Energy Storage System would be 236 GWh in 2031-32.
These numbers make one thing clear: storage can no longer be treated as an auxiliary component of the renewable energy ecosystem. It has to become an integral part of India’s power infrastructure.
From renewable generation to reliable renewable power
India’s initial efforts for clean energy transition were all about adding more capacities. The future of India’s energy transition needs to take the approach of flexibility and reliability.
The output of a solar plant is possible only during sunlight hours. A wind energy project depends on the wind situation. However, homes, factories, data centers, and other places cannot run based on these criteria.
Energy storage technology will change everything with its ability to use the electricity produced earlier.
BESS can store excess renewable electricity when there is a high production and supply it in high demand. In the case of a power network, the technology can be used to implement load shifting, frequency control, voltage regulation and managing the grid. Hence, energy storage can transform the intermittent energy of renewable sources into reliable and flexible ones.
It is essential to differentiate the two approaches. In the future, the success of renewable energy will not depend on gigawatt-hours of capacity but on its integration into the power system.
Storage is also an industrial opportunity
The need for energy storage goes beyond simply being an industry need. The development of an energy storage ecosystem can actually enable a whole new domestic manufacturing ecosystem.
In fact, India has already acknowledged the strategic significance of building out capabilities for battery value chain. Now, the country needs to go from mere assembling and installing the devices to further localize batteries components, materials, technologies of manufacturing, and even recycling and battery life cycle management.
It becomes important because storage systems will become essential infrastructure across several sectors.
Renewables utility scale projects would need huge storage capacities. Commercial and industrial users will seek storage solutions for peak management and resilience. Energy-intensive industries, including data centers and others, would need reliable energy. EVs would generate additional need for battery and related infrastructure.
Such converging demands can present interesting prospects for Indian manufacturers, technological providers, and engineering firms.
However, this alone would not be enough. India needs to build its own storage ecosystem that would be cost-effective, safe, technologically competitive and supported by robust local supply chain.
Policy support must evolve with the market
The government has already taken several steps to accelerate storage deployment. These include viability gap funding for BESS, procurement guidelines, an energy storage framework and measures to facilitate storage deployment alongside renewable energy. The government has also expanded support for BESS through the Power System Development Fund.
These interventions are important because storage economics are still evolving.
Unlike conventional generation assets, the value of a storage system cannot always be captured through a single revenue stream. A battery may provide peak power, grid balancing, ancillary services and renewable energy integration, all within the same asset.
The market therefore needs clearer frameworks for valuing these multiple services.
Long-term contracts, appropriate tariff structures, ancillary service markets and predictable regulations will be essential for attracting private capital into storage at the scale India requires.
The objective should be to move from storage being viewed primarily as a cost of renewable integration to storage being recognised as an independent infrastructure asset with multiple sources of value.
The grid will need to become more flexible
Storage cannot operate in isolation.
As renewable penetration increases, India will need a power system that is capable of responding quickly to changes in generation and demand. This means investments in transmission, distribution infrastructure, forecasting, digital grid management and demand-side flexibility must move alongside storage deployment.
The recent growth of renewable energy has already highlighted the consequences of infrastructure constraints. In fact, policy changes in 2026 allowing renewable projects to use co-located battery systems to store electricity that might otherwise be curtailed demonstrate how storage can help improve utilisation of existing renewable assets.
This is an important shift in thinking.
India does not necessarily need to solve every energy challenge by building more generation capacity. In many situations, the smarter solution may be to make better use of the electricity already being generated.
Building a circular battery economy
With increasing battery adoption, another critical issue will come into focus: what becomes of batteries once they have served out their initial useful life?
A viable storage ecosystem is one that is set up from the start with considerations around recycling, reuse and material recovery built-in. This is because metals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, aluminium and others not only carry economic value but strategic value as well.
For India, it means having the opportunity to create a circular battery ecosystem where batteries are not discarded after use but are seen as a source of material that can be retained in the industrial ecosystem as much as possible.
Such a strategy will not only minimize reliance on imported raw materials but build up another level of domestic industry capability.
The next chapter must be about energy availability
It is clear from the experience of India’s journey towards renewables that this requires nothing less than ambitious thinking.
The question is not just how many gigawatts of renewable power India can produce.
The critical question now is how reliable that renewable power can be.
This is the function that energy storage serves.
The government’s own estimates make clear the extent of the challenge, with India set to need hundreds of gigawatt hours of energy storage in the next decade, while its actual implementation remains far below the total that would eventually be needed.
Closing that gap will depend on the efforts of policymakers, utilities, renewable generators, manufacturers, technology firms and financiers.
The potential for industry is just as great, with the energy storage revolution creating new manufacturing capabilities, securing the domestic supply chain, creating skilled jobs and putting India on an equal footing within the global clean energy value chain.
Renewable power gave India the ability to produce its electricity cleanly and at scale. Energy storage gives India the opportunity to use its electricity more wisely.
India’s renewable energy revolution has begun. Its next revolution will be to make renewable energy usable on demand.
