Robust battery ecosystem vital for clean energy shift

India must act now on minerals, components, technology, finance, and skills for battery manufacturing

India's clean energy story has so far been told in terms of gigawatts of solar and wind capacity additions. The next chapter will be told in gigawatt-hours. The ability to store cheap power and release it when it is needed is becoming increasingly important for energy transition.

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) can help in this. The Central Electricity Authority estimates that India will need about 47.24 GW/236 GWh of BESSs by 2031-32, alongside 26.69 GW/175 GWh of pumped storage.

India had roughly 1 GWh of domestic cell-making capacity at the end of 2025, against about 60 GWh of pack assembly. We can assemble batteries, but cell manufacturing remains in its early stages. An IEEFA analysis puts it bluntly: nearly every battery cell powering India's shift is imported, mostly from China. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cells, launched in 2021 with a 50 GWh target by the end of 2025, was meant to change this. However, by October 2025, only 1.4 GWh, or 2.8 per cent of the target, had been commissioned.