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India’s Battery Storage Buildout Lags Behind Solar Energy Needs

US tariffs, missing cells, evening power gaps: inside India’s solar energy bottlenecks · livemint.com

Solar panels often make more electricity around midday than is needed then.

Batteries can save some of that electricity for the evening.

India has been including batteries in more renewable-energy tenders.

But building the batteries has been difficult.

Only about 2.6 GWh of battery storage was commissioned in FY26.

Much more is expected to be built over the next two years.

Developers had expected battery prices to keep falling.

Instead, supply and geopolitical pressures pushed prices higher in 2026.

That makes it harder to build the storage needed to move solar power into the evening.

Key facts

Storage-linked share of renewable capacity auctions: Nearly 40% in FY26, compared with 5% two years earlier.
Battery storage commissioned: About 2.6 GWh in FY26, according to JMK Research.
Expected storage additions: 45–50 GWh due over the next two years.
Battery price change: Prices rose by about a third in 2026.
Lithium carbonate futures: About 192,000 yuan a tonne in May 2026, nearly three times the May 2025 low and roughly double May 2025 levels.
Developers’ earlier assumption: Low bids in 2024 and 2025 were based on expectations that battery prices would keep falling.

livemint.com · 2 hrs ago