Que: How was the idea of organising World Energy Storage Day (WESD) came into light and its vision?

Ans: With the emergence of energy storage at the forefront of industry developments, September 22 each year is commemorated as the World Energy Storage Day (WESD). WESD is a movement started in 2017 to acknowledge the significance of energy storage in achieving the goal of a greener grid and cleaner transportation around the globe. It is observed and commemorated by various industry stakeholders, policymakers, think tanks, and associations.

Que: Why 22nd September?

Ans: The Autumnal Equinox, when the day and night are of approximately equal duration occurs on 22nd September every year. Inspired by this phenomenon and in support of the Earth Day movement, Global Energy Storage Alliance chose this day in 2017 as World Energy Storage Day to celebrate the role energy storage technologies can play in enabling a greener grid and cleaner transportation.

Que: What do you think, which clean energy storage technologies will lead the future? And why?

Ans: India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) has estimated the stationary energy storage market potential in India to be around 230 GWh during the period 2020-2027. The share of grid-scale applications contribution is expected to be 15%, with behind-the-meter applications making up the rest. The top growing markets for ESS are renewable integration into the grid, diesel optimization, solar rooftop, and distribution utility scales storage. Renewable integration into the grid is slated to grow at a CAGR of 32% by 2027 due to the focus on solar-wind hybrid tenders by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and other government agencies, due to a high renewable target of 450 GW by 2030. Presently, the total installed BESS is around 20MWh, and there are several ESS projects of 360MW which are under tendering or construction phase. Li-ion has already witnessed acceptance in telecom towers, electric vehicles, data centers and large-scale solar integration projects.

With more states coming out with EV policies and declaring strategic moves like waiving off registration fees and road taxes, the propensity towards EV will eventually improve in the coming years. Going by the current scenario, the future of EVs in India looks quite promising. The current trends also show a lot of promise for the industry to grow exponentially in the following years. The EV market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 44% between 2020 and 2027 and is expected to hit 6.34 million unit annual sales by 2027. The annual battery demand is forecasted to grow at 32% to hit 50GWh by 2027 of this, 40+GWh will be on lithium-ion batteries. The estimated battery market potential is $580 million in 2019 and is forecasted to grow to $14.9 billion by 2027.

Que: In the absence of cheaper energy storage technologies, will EVs become an attractive option for mass adoption? In your view, how storage can become cheaper?

Ans: The coming decade is for the energy storage and e-mobility industry. In the past 2 years, we have witnessed an exponential increase in EV sales around the globe, which is fuelled by the performance improvements and over 10X cost reduction achieved by advanced batteries between 2010 and 2020.

IESA analysis shows that the EV market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 44% between 2020 and 2027, and is expected to hit 6.34 million unit annual sales by 2027, with 85% of the market coming from the e-2W and e-3W segments. Thus, we believe that with the Production Linked incentives in place for ACC Battery manufacturing and auto sector in place, India shows strong promise to become a major contender as a global leader in EV.

Que: Is the road for lead-acid battery manufacturers easier to switch to Lithium Ion or any other form of clean energy battery technology?

Ans: India is one of the highest consumers of lead-acid batteries. It is used in a wide variety of applications including UPS, grid-scale power systems and e-rickshaw market. In terms of battery technology, lead-acid continues to dominate the market due to strong after-sales service.

The industry believes that there is a huge potential for the growth of the e-rickshaw market in the upcoming years as many new markets such as Raipur, Indore, Bhopal, Orissa, etc have opened last year. Moreover, the South and Northeast markets are also expected to open in the upcoming years. However, OEMs have started shifting towards Li-ion batteries. As per International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT), 80% -90% of the newer models tested and certified are based on Li-ion batteries.

Que: To provide a boost for energy storage manufacturing in the country, what will be your key suggestions?

Ans: With the announcement of the ACC PLI Scheme by the government recently, it is expected that more companies will come forward to set up advanced chemistry cell manufacturing plants in India as well as the domestic value addition requirement of the PLI scheme will drive the setting up of complete manufacturing supply chain & recycling industry, completing the cycle of self-reliance.

With the recent technological advances and manufacturing scale-up, advanced energy storage technologies like li-ion batteries have demonstrated almost a 90% reduction in cost in the past decade. This coupled with the reduction of renewable energy technologies like solar, is now resulting in solar + storage to be a cost-effective solution for C&I customers not just to reduce diesel consumption but to compete with the grid power. The only missing piece is the availability of financing. We anticipate that in the next 12-18 months, we will see tremendous growth in the deployment of storage in the private sector. Already telecom sector and data centres have started massive deployment of advanced storage technologies. Now rest of the private players need to show faith in the market and that there is a need for at least two or three large Indian conglomerates to take the initiative to match the government’s vision and get involved in a partnership with global leaders and take the necessary steps, a trend that is being witnessed globally.