India’s power sector finds its next big bet in batteries

Together, these shifts are unlocking investments of up to ₹1.4 trillion by 2030, as energy companies, developers and manufacturers bet on large-scale storage to stabilize renewable power, support grid reliability and back India’s rapid expansion of solar and wind capacity.

Energy storage systems address a key shortcoming of renewable energy, which is intermittency. Having reliable energy storage system infrastructure is crucial for India to ramp up its clean energy capacity, meet its climate change obligations, and wean off its addiction to coal.

Amongst the largest investors are Reliance Industries, Adani Green Energy, Waaree Energies, JSW Energy, and Premier Energies, as per public statements made by these companies.

While some, such as Waaree, are investing in manufacturing battery cells and packs for storage systems, Adani Green is deploying batteries at scale for some of India’s largest storage projects. Reliance Industries, meanwhile, has charted an end-to-end strategy—from cell manufacturing to battery assembly and deployment in large BESS installations.

Price trigger

The surge in investment interest has been led by a sharp fall in battery prices over the past few years. Battery costs dropped below $100 per kWh in 2025, compared with nearly $200 in 2019, according to estimates by credit rating agency ICRA.

“The decline in battery costs has hastened adoption of battery storage at the grid level," ICRA analysts said in a note published this month, estimating that 610 GWh of BESS capacity was installed globally in 2025—68% higher than the previous year.

In India, however, cumulative BESS capacity remains modest at around 0.5 GWh as of June this year, according to estimates from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). For context, 1 GWh is sufficient to power around 10,000 average Indian homes for a month.

Battery costs are still too high to make many BESS projects commercially viable in India, ICRA analysts noted. However, “the expectation of a further reduction in battery prices may improve the cost economics for energy storage over the coming decade," they added. Cumulative investments in BESS could reach about ₹1.4 trillion by 2030, the agency estimated.

Policy tailwinds

A strong policy push from New Delhi is also accelerating momentum in the sector. The government is implementing a ₹5,400-crore viability gap funding (VGF) scheme to support 30 GWh of BESS capacity, aimed at crowding in private investments of around ₹33,000 crore. This expands an earlier programme that had earmarked ₹3,760 crore for 13.2 GWh of storage capacity.

In February this year, the CEA issued an advisory to renewable energy implementing agencies and state utilities mandating a minimum of two-hour co-located energy storage—equivalent to 10% of installed solar capacity—in future solar tenders.

“Battery energy storage is no longer an ancillary to renewable generation in India—it is becoming core grid infrastructure," said Deepto Roy, partner at law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.

India’s renewable energy targets cannot be met through generation capacity alone, and large-scale deployment of BESS will be indispensable, Roy said. Falling technology costs and supportive policy measures have materially improved sector economics, he added.

“I envisage that massive capital deployment in BESS would be the next phase of the investment cycle in power."

Big-ticket investors

Reliance Industries has outlined the most ambitious plans among domestic players. The company intends to set up a 40 GWh battery cell plant by early 2026, with plans to scale capacity to 100 GWh in the medium term.

“RIL’s key long-term competitive advantage in battery manufacturing (and across new energy) remains scale, ability to undertake technologically complex projects, and an integrated and unique new energy ecosystem," analysts at Motilal Oswal wrote in a note dated 19 November.

In the initial phase, most of the output will be used for captive BESS projects at Reliance’s upcoming renewable energy complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat, before third-party sales begin in subsequent years, the analysts said.

Waaree Energies, a major solar cell manufacturer, is investing more than ₹10,000 crore to build 20 GWh of integrated battery cell and pack manufacturing capacity for BESS in two phases. The first phase of 3.5 GWh is under construction, with plans to ramp up to full capacity in the second phase. Unlike Reliance, Waaree’s focus will be on supplying storage systems to renewable energy developers rather than captive deployment.

The Adani Group is developing India’s largest BESS project—a 3.5 GWh installation at Khavda—scheduled for completion by March 2026, the company said in a statement last month. The group plans to scale storage capacity to 15 GWh by March 2027 and 50 GWh by 2030. Adani has not disclosed plans for battery cell manufacturing and will procure storage systems from external suppliers.

JSW Energy is setting up a 5 GWh battery assembly facility in Pune, which will source cells externally and assemble them into BESS units. The company aims to build 40 GWh of energy storage capacity by 2030, though a large share of this will come from pumped storage plants (PSP), with BESS contributing a smaller portion. Adani Green Energy is also investing in PSP alongside battery storage.

Pumped storage plants store energy by pumping water to a higher elevation and releasing it through turbines to generate electricity during peak demand.

Why storage matters

BESS systems use large arrays of battery packs—each containing multiple cells—to store electricity generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind. They help smooth power supply by storing excess generation during periods of high output and releasing it when generation falls.

As India increases its reliance on renewable energy, the country is expected to need 34.7 GWh of BESS capacity by the end of FY27, according to the CEA—far above the current operational capacity of just over 0.5 GWh.

Looking ahead, India is projected to require 411.4 GWh of energy storage capacity by FY32, including 236.2 GWh from BESS, the CEA estimates.

Analysts at Motilal Oswal believe actual demand could exceed these projections. In a note published last month, the brokerage said the CEA’s estimates do not account for India’s potential emergence as a global battery export hub or new use cases such as integrating BESS with thermal power plants.

“Overall, we believe BESS demand has the potential to far exceed CEA’s initial estimated FY32 target of 236 GWh," the analysts said.