Storage, Innovation will Decide Future of Renewable Energy

Soumik Dutta | NT

Future of renewable energy in India will depend on technological innovations and storage cost of the renewable energy produced. Currently, the unviable price of storing energy is a major deterrent to the ambitious target India has set for installing 500 GW by 2030.

The future of renewable energy is totally dependent on innovations and storage cost coming down, need for less space for energy storage, utilisation of high energy density, and materials which are used to produce energy storage safely. Recently, the government floated tenders on energy generation bundled with storage.

The energy price currently is Rs. 11 per unit (including Rs. 2.5 per unit cost of solar energy in addition to charges for storage). In the energy mix, renewable energy is 22-23 per cent of the total amount fed into the grid. To replace fossil fuel and bringing the shift to electric vehicles which includes 4-wheelers, and 2-wheelers, India needs storage solutions for that as well.  In order to be totally selfreliant, India should be able to manufacture and the entire process chain should happen here.

There should be investments in R&D so that innovation happens in India and products which suit India’s requirements are produced, with optimum use of materials which are readily available in India It may be added here that many international firms want to manufacture storage components in India, and the existing production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for batteries manufacturing in India has already been introduced by the government.

With manufacturing in India, the prices are bound to come down. India has to secure the minerals and raw materials required for manufacturing like Lithium, one of the key minerals for the battery industry.

With the finding of Lithium reserves in J-K, the government is optimistic, but it will require time to start exploration and mining operations. So far only about 8% of exploration activities have been done in India, as per government data, so India might have sufficient Lithium or Nickel reserves and might not require reliance on imports.