India Boosts Battery Investment to Cut Solar Power Waste

India is investing in battery storage for its solar power projects to tackle high curtailment rates, according to Santosh Sarangi, Secretary of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Nearly 42 GW of solar projects are still struggling to find buyers, with around 18 GW of standalone solar projects at risk without battery backup.

Additionally, up to 15 GW of projects awarded at high prices may also fail to find buyers, the official stated at the BNEF Summit in New Delhi. India's electricity grid is expanding at a slower pace than the surge in renewable energy installations, leading to an increasing share of curtailed clean energy and potentially slowing the solar and wind boom in the world's most populous nation.

Grid and transmission constraints are responsible for nearly two-thirds of all renewable energy curtailment, with 300 GWh in the first quarter of the year, according to a report by Ember, a clean energy think tank. Another analysis by Ember suggests India needs roughly 10 GWh of battery storage immediately to prevent renewable energy curtailment when the coal fleet cannot reduce output below its technical minimum.

During the hottest months of the year in India, between April and June, the national grid wasted 11% of the solar power output, despite electricity demand reaching a new record high. The grid failed to absorb 8 billion kWh of solar energy, compared to 63 billion kWh that reached the grid, as reported by Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State in the New and Renewable Energy Ministry.