Indian renewable energy developer ReNew Power has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Fluence, a provider of energy storage products and services, to form a joint venture to meet customers’ demands across India.

The new company will be a 50:50 joint venture and cater to the market, which it expects to reach 27 GW/108GWh by 2030. The new enterprise will be managed and operated by an independent management team and board.

The joint venture aims to bring market-leading energy storage solutions to customers by localizing and integrating Fluence’s energy storage products and packages in India.

Fluence provides energy storage products and digital applications for renewables and storage. It has over 3.6 GW of energy storage deployed or contracted in 30 markets globally and more than 4.7 GW of wind, solar, and storage assets optimized or contracted in Australia and California.

ReNew Power has a head-start in India’s nascent energy storage space with its energy storage portfolio of 300 MW of peak-power projects and 400 MW of round-the-clock power projects.

With the help of the joint venture with Fluence, it aims to offer battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions to a wide range of customers in the Indian market, including engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) players and asset management services.

Sharing his views on this new development, Sumant Sinha, Chairman and CEO of ReNew Power, said, “India’s energy transition and its ambition to achieve net-zero by 2070 calls for strong and rapid storage integration with the grid. We’re delighted to partner with Fluence to bring localized solutions to India. I expect it to set new milestones for the storage industry in India.”

The joint venture is expected to start its operations in the first half (1H) of 2022 and will kick off by providing a solution to its first customer, ReNew, with 150 MWh BESS required for its 300 MW peak power project in Karnataka.

As things stand, energy storage will be a key enabler in achieving India’s climate goal of 500 GW of renewable capacity by 2030.

Although the energy storage capacity addition was negligible in 2021, developers believe that the market will take off in 2022 and expect higher energy storage deployments in the country.

Recently, ReNew Power announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, India Clean Energy Holdings, had raised $400 million at 4.5% by issuing senior secured dollar notes. Climate Bonds Initiative certified the dollar notes as green bonds, and the bonds would be listed on the Singapore Exchange.

Last August, the company was listed on Nasdaq after completing a business combination with RMG Acquisition Corporation II, a special purpose acquisition company.