Given the intermittent nature of solar and wind energy and the growing demand for round-the-clock power in India, energy storage is the vital missing piece.

Energy storage is key to realizing the full potential of energy sources like solar and wind. Making them baseload is critical to accelerating clean energy adoption. A recent report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative also emphasizes that emerging markets and developing economies like India focus on energy storage technologies.

While most economies are developing and installing energy storage on a large scale, India has only recently started deploying energy storage projects. In one of the largest storage tenders, the Solar Energy Corporation of India is planning to set up pilot projects of 500 MW/1000 MWh standalone battery energy storage systems under a build, own, operate, and transfer model.

Energy project developers in the country have displayed reluctance to take up projects with storage options due to the rising prices and the lack of availability of battery components. This had been a significant impediment to driving the growth of battery storage projects in the country.

Mercom is hosting ‘Mercom India Solar Summit 2022,’ an exclusive event on July 28-29 in New Delhi where key stakeholders across the board will discuss the critical issues, challenges, supply chain disruptions, financing, and market movements in the renewable energy sector.

In one of the sessions titled ‘Energy Storage-What Are We Waiting For?’ the participants will discuss lessons learned from the global markets, the role of short-and long-term energy storage, and the technologies that can address the various pain points.

The panel will have Rajnath Ram, Adviser, NITI Aayog; Upma Koul, Vice President, Sumitomo SHI FW; and Rupam Raja, Market Director-South Asia, Fluence.

Wendy Prabhu, President and Co-founder of Mercom Capital Group will moderate the session.

With the rising global demand, battery storage companies have experienced an influx of funding. According to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2022 Funding and M&A Report for Storage, Grid & Efficiency, corporate funding for battery storage companies in 1H 2022 globally saw an increase of 64%, with $15.8 billion raised in 57 deals compared to $9.6 billion raised in 43 deals in 1H 2021.

In India, the government is planning to introduce an Energy Storage policy to drive growth and support renewable expansion. Union Power Minister R K Singh, in his recent interaction with the renewable energy developers and government representatives, said that storage would be an integral part of the power system under the Electricity Act.

Some of the initiatives in the draft policy that could ease storage adoption include – delicensing standalone energy storage development; the energy storage capacity in the round-the-clock renewable energy projects to be considered for Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO); issuance of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for storage capacities; and renewable transmission costs waiver when charging the storage and selling the stored renewables.

You can register for the event here.