Industry participants stated that the growing capacity of renewable energy sources creates an urgent need to expand storage systems, highlighting a significant gap between demand and current production capabilities for key battery cell components.
Industry members also warned that dependence on imports should not be seen as a reason to slow down technology adoption. These remarks are particularly important because domestic battery production in India currently accounts for less than one percent (2 GWh) of the planned demand of 260 GWh from competitive tenders in 2026.
As noted by Hanish Gupta, founder and managing director of Sunkind India, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and pumped storage projects are becoming increasingly vital with the expansion of India's renewable capacity to meet growing electricity demand and balance solar generation with peak demand.
Vinay Rustagi, Chief Commercial Officer of Premier Energies, stated that batteries and other storage technologies are critical to solving the intermittency problem of solar energy and unlocking its growth potential.
Piyush Goyal, CEO and co-founder of Volks Energie, reported that the demand for energy storage in India significantly outpaces domestic cell manufacturing capabilities, and this deficit is a matter of several years, not just a few quarters. He added: 'I would advise against using import dependency as an excuse to slow down adoption. The grid now needs storage to stabilize the added renewable capacity, and a decade-long pause until full localization of cells is a choice we cannot make.'
In a public statement, NTPC Chairman Gurdeep Singh indicated that storage systems benefit in two ways. Energy generated during the day from renewable sources can be stored and used when there is no sunlight. He reported that NTPC has received an allocation of 5 GWh capacity for Battery Energy Storage Systems under the Viability Gap Funding scheme to optimize existing thermal generation and transmission infrastructure, ensuring reliable and economical power supply during non-sunny hours.
According to a recent Wood Mackenzie study conducted last week, India will not be able to achieve self-sufficiency in battery storage for more than a decade due to a huge discrepancy between demand and the current ability to produce necessary battery cell components. The study also noted that this gap leads to structural dependence on imports, despite accelerating political ambitions, indicating that India only has 2 GWh of operational cell manufacturing capacity for 2026, while China's total capacity is 2695 GWh, controlling 85 to 98 percent of the global volume across all major supply chain components, from cathode to anode, separator, and electrolyte.