India has ramped up its wind and solar energy. It now needs to expand places to store it - Toronto Star

India has ramped up its wind and solar energy. It now needs to expand places to store it

A worker walks in front of the 500-kilowatt battery energy storage system inside the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages factory in Thiruvallur district, on the outskirts of Chennai, India, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
India has ramped up its wind and solar energy. It now needs to expand places to store it

BENGALURU, India (AP) — At a Coca-Cola factory on the outskirts of Chennai in southern India a giant battery powers machinery day and night, replacing a diesel-spewing generator. It’s one of just a handful of sites in India powered by electricity stored in batteries, a key component to fast-tracking India’s energy transition away from dirty fuels.

A worker walks in front of the 500-kilowatt battery energy storage system inside the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages factory in Thiruvallur district, on the outskirts of Chennai, India, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

BENGALURU, India (AP) — At a Coca-Cola factory on the outskirts of Chennai in southern India a giant battery powers machinery day and night, replacing a diesel-spewing generator. It’s one of just a handful of sites in India powered by electricity stored in batteries, a key component to fast-tracking India’s energy transition away from dirty fuels.

The country’s lithium ion battery storage industry — which can store electricity generated by wind turbines or solar panels for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing — makes up just 0.1% of global battery storage systems. But battery storage is growing fast, with around a third of India’s total battery infrastructure coming online just this year.

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Alexander Hogeveen Rutter, an independent energy analyst based in Bengaluru, said upping storage capacity should be done alongside ramping up renewables.

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“The country needs to quadruple its renewable energy deployment just to meet demand growth,” said Hogeveen Rutter.

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Akshay Singhal, co-founder of the Bengaluru-based battery tech startup Log 9 Materials, thinks that better government support can help the country meet growing energy demands “the right way,” with clean energy.

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