New Energy Policy to Be Finalised Shortly

The centre is in the process of shortly finalising an energy policy for the country a senior official of the government think tank NITI Aayog informed at an energy storage event in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Speaking at the conference on ‘Energy Storage: Driving Demand and Investments’, organised by the industry chamber FICCI, RP Gupta, Additional Secretary (Energy), NITI Aayog said that the new policy will seek to address the issues of accessibility and affordability, energy security, thrust on clean source energy and the overall requirement of energy.

Highlighting the potential of energy storage in India, Gupta said that the government was encouraging the local manufacturing of cells used in electric vehicles batteries under ‘Make in India’ along with a policy for demand creation and measures to incentivise investments. “Hopefully in a short period a new policy will come in place to encourage domestic manufacturers,” he said.

Gupta emphasised that energy efficiency was one of the priority areas with the government. “What we have estimated is that if we come out with proper policies and solutions for energy efficiency then the total energy requirement can be reduced by 20 per cent,” he said.

Manish Sharma, Co-chair, FICCI Energy Storage Committee & CEO, Panasonic India & South Asia, opined, “Given the increasing demand and competitiveness of renewable power generation options, electricity storage will play a crucial role in enabling the next phase of the energy transition. Hence, it is important to build an ecosystem that promotes battery manufacturing in the country.”

Manoj Kohli, Chairman, FICCI Renewable Energy CEOs Council & Executive Chairman, SB Energy, said, “The cost of electric vehicles will come down only when the cost of the storage battery is reduced.” He further added that in the next decade there is going to be a massive energy transition in India.

The FICCI-EY report on Battery Storage: The Next Big Energy Frontier was also released during the event.

• Highlights of the FICCI-EY report on Battery Storage: The Next Big Energy Frontier report
• By 2025, India’s power generation will account to 1,130 MT of CO2 emissions, which is estimated to be around 11 per cent of the global power sector emissions
• Renewable energy sources in India likely to witness a growth potential of 10 per cent to form 34 per cent of the total power generation by 2025 and rising to 66 per cent by 2040
• Electricity as a transport fuel source will grow the fastest at 11 per cent, accounting for 10 per cent of the total energy mix for transportation by 2040
• India’s energy storage market expected to grow upwards of 2 TWh by 2030
• 11 MT of Li-ion batteries to be discarded by 2030 creating a $11.8 billion market opportunity by 2022