New Delhi: India’s energy storage sector is likely to see investments worth over ₹2,000 crore in the India Energy Storage Week 2024 next month.
The event will be held on July 1-5 in the national capital.
The India Energy Storage Week is an annual event organized by the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), an industry body, to garner investments and highlight developments in green technology, renewable energy, and energy storage.
Addressing a press conference, Debi Prasad Dash, executive director, IESA said domestic as well as international investors are expected commit over ₹2,000 crore to boost manufacturing in the energy storage sector in India.
Funds to go towards manufacturing, recycling lithium-ion batteries in EVs
He said the investments would go towards manufacturing and recycling lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. Dash said investments are also expected in the electric vehicles (EV) and green hydrogen sectors.
The investments into energy storage will push India closer to fulfilling its target of over 81 gigawatt-hours (GWh) by 2026-27, as stated by the Central Electricity Authority in its National Electricity Plan (NEP) 2023.
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Around five new battery manufacturing factories are expected to be announced during the five-day long event.
The event will be backed by more than ten government bodies including the ministries of heavy industries, power, new and renewable energy, electronics and information technology.
Singapore-based VFlowTech, will launch its largest long-duration energy storage manufacturing facility in Palwal near Haryana this year. The factory will have a capacity of 100 megawatt-hours (MWh) and will expand into a gigafactory soon with the help of committed investments from VFlowTech’s parent company in Singapore over the next two years, said Vivek Seth, Managing Director (India), VFlowTech India Pvt Ltd.
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“Now we are ready for Indian operations and scaling up with a larger presence in India,” he said.
Lithium-ion battery maker Nash Energy will start manufacturing operations in its Karnataka factory next month, Nash Energy COO Anil Kumar said on Wednesday.
A part of the investments in IESA’s event are expected from companies operating in the battery recycling domain. Lohum Cleantech Pvt Ltd, a battery recycling company, is planning investments into manganese-driven lithium-ion battery manufacturing, because India has large deposits of the grey metal, the company said. Another recycling company BatX Energies Pvt Ltd is planning to set up a plant to extract key battery materials to push for a circular economy.
Investments in the energy storage space, both in terms of electric vehicles and utility scale battery energy storage systems has gained momentum in the past few years with the government’s ambitious plan for transition in mobility and the power sector. The adoption of electric vehicles is aimed at reducing oil imports. Further, large scale battery storage plays a key role in the power sector as it helps in the storage of renewable energy generated from solar and wind and provides stability to the power grid.