India’s solar-power capacity has grown exponentially to around 14 gigawatts (GW) and the government has set an ambitious target of 100 GW by 2020, but storage has been a missing link thus far and the government is now acknowledging the need for it. Therefore, the government wants the industry to set up battery-manufacturing units in India as a sharp decline in prices of batteries between 2010 and 2017 has made battery-backed solar power more viable.
While India has a huge solar-power potential, this source of energy is intermittent and subject to fluctuations. The world over, solar power is supplemented with gas-based or hydropower to ensure continuous power supply. India does not have much gas, and hydropower project development in the country has been slow, leaving battery storage as a backup option.
Wartsila, the 5-billion euro Finnish energy systems provider, is looking to develop India as its biggest Asian market for battery storage solutions, given the huge potential from the country’s solar power play. The battery helps generate 30% more power with the same investment. Its solution has a payback period of less than two years.
Wartsila has emerged the biggest player with acquisition of Greensmith Energy Management Systems, a market leader in grid scale energy storage software and integrated solutions. The global energy storage market will be worth $60 billion by 2020, and India will account for a sizeable share of this.