Integrating India’s renewable energy storage into grid

India needs to be ready to ride into the energy storage wave by establishing strong battery storage, green hydrogen and flexible coal-fired power plants.

According to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), Battery storage, Green hydrogen and Flexible coal-fired power generation can help India address its next big challenge of integrating large-scale variable renewable energy into the electricity grid over the next decade.

 The report’s author IEEFA Research Analyst Kashish Shah says, “The transition to low-cost, variable renewable energy generation requires a flexible grid that can respond rapidly to changes in power demand dynamics. Battery storage can provide a solution to help the grid manage massive amounts of intermittent wind and solar, provide dispatchable power during peak demand periods and other essential grid services and battery cost deflation is now making utility-scale battery storage projects possible for India.”

“Battery storage will likely play an important role in India achieving its renewable energy capacity target of 450GW by 2030. India already has 93GW of on-grid variable renewable energy and is targeting annual additions of 20-40GW,” says Shah.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) projects that solar and wind will form 51% of India’s total installed capacity or 420GW by 2030 with biomass and small hydro adding another 30GW while the IEA’s India Energy Outlook 2021 says that India could add 900GW of renewable capacity by 2040.

Solar power is now the cheapest source of new Indian electricity capacity and with record low tariffs of ₹1.99-2/kWh (US$~27/MWh), it’s now below the marginal fuel cost of coal-fired power plants.

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