India’s energy transition is gathering pace. The country is poised to reach a milestone in its green journey, with renewable energy expected to account for half of its total installed power generation capacity—472 gigawatts (GW)—by the end of 2025.
India has made significant strides in its energy generation efforts. Currently, we have reached almost 50% of our total generation capacity of 472GW, said Manohar Lal Khattar
India’s energy transition is gathering pace. The country is poised to reach a milestone in its green journey, with renewable energy expected to account for half of its total installed power generation capacity—472 gigawatts (GW)—by the end of 2025.
Speaking at the India Energy Storage Week (IESW) in New Delhi on Wednesday, Manohar Lal Khattar, the Union Minister for Power, declared, “India has made significant strides in its energy generation efforts. Currently, we have reached almost 50% of our total generation capacity of 472GW, and by the end of this year, India is on track to achieve the 50% renewable energy milestone.”
Yet capacity alone is not enough. Mr Khattar was quick to caution that to ensure the stability of India’s power grid and maintain a round-the-clock supply of clean electricity, robust energy storage infrastructure is essential. “To stabilise our grid, optimise power generation, and ensure 24/7 reliable clean energy, establishing an energy storage system is critical to meet our targets,” he said.
Encouragingly, the cost of storage is falling. Once prohibitively expensive, the economics are beginning to shift in favour of adoption. “In the past three to four years, the cost of energy storage has significantly decreased,” Mr Khattar noted. “What was once ₹10 lakh per megawatt has now fallen to ₹2.5 lakh per megawatt per month, indicating a reduction to one-fourth of the original cost.”
Ghanshyam Prasad, chair of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), outlined the current state of India’s storage readiness. He noted that approximately 3,300MW of capacity is already in the pipeline and is expected to result in 8,500 megawatt-hours (MWh) of storage over the next two years. A further 12,500MW—translating to roughly 42,000MWh—is under tender.
However, Mr Prasad admitted that the existing battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity remains dismally low. “The country’s current BESS capacity stands at about 205MW, or roughly 506MWh,” he said. “That is a meagre base, considering the scale of India’s ambitions.”
Those ambitions are steep. The CEA projects that India will require around 74GW of energy storage capacity by the end of 2031-32. Getting there will demand consistent scale-up from 2026 onwards. Pumped hydro, a proven but capital-intensive technology, is expected to shoulder much of the burden. “This year, the government aims to target approximately 3,000MW of hydro pumped storage capacity and is working towards increasing the total pumped storage project capacity to 50GW in the coming years,” Mr Prasad said.
That will not be easy. India’s current installed hydro pumped storage capacity is just 5GW. Scaling it tenfold in five to six years will require not only financial muscle and regulatory clarity, but also deft handling of land and environmental issues. Nonetheless, the direction is clear. India is no longer content to inch forward—it wants to charge ahead, batteries and all.