The Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI), Govt. of India will be coming out with a 10 gigawatt RFP for for grid-scale energy storage systems in association with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and and NITI Aayog in order to have indigenous capability for manufacturing of battery energy storage system compatible advanced chemistry cells, said Vijay Mittal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Govt. of India while addressing the International Summit on Lithium-Ion Batteries organised by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA).

Mittal added, “The Ministry of Heavy Industry is leading the mission of indigenous manufacturing of chemistry cells in the country as part of our electric vehicle (EV) initiative. Our goal is to achieve net zero by 2070 and reduce the need for imports of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, addressing environmental concerns. This journey began over three years ago, and we are pleased to share our progress and views on our ACCPLI with the support of stakeholders, we have allocated over 40 gigawatt-hours out of 50 gigawatts to various OEMs for indigenous manufacturing of ACC.”

It is anticipated that the nation will soon witness a significant increase in battery manufacturing capacity with the government of India’s progressive ACC-PLI scheme.

Various Indian National Labs and start-ups are working on the development of advanced lithium technologies including Lithium Sulphur, solid-state batteries, etc. With these opportunities, IESA expect the Indian industry to need to increase its investment 5X in the next 5 years.

Debi Prasad Dash, President of IESA, commented, “The lithium-ion battery industry is crucial to India's clean energy goals. This summit will help shape the roadmap for the country’s transition to sustainable energy, presenting a unique opportunity for Indian and global players to collaborate and innovate. With the projected demand and developments in technology, this is the right time for increased investment and focus on scaling lithium-ion battery manufacturing in India.”

India is expecting a cumulative demand of 600-900 GWh Lithium batteries by 2032. With these huge opportunities, India is also working on appropriate safety standards considering the application, temperature, and environmental conditions.

Dr. Rahul Walwalker, Chairman of IESA says, “In 2020, there were only around 100 gigawatt hours of manufacturing expected to occur outside of China. However, the current expectation is that in the next 5 to 10 years, there will be a minimum of 1000 gigawatt-hours, and possibly up to 1500 gigawatt hours, of manufacturing set up outside of China. Many countries are looking for an alternative to relying solely on China, creating a potential market opportunity of up to 2500 gigawatt hours for the supply chain in India. The goal is to scale up manufacturing in India, with the initial target being 50-gigawatt hours set up by the ACCPLI, and a larger vision set by the IESA for India to have a minimum of 550-gigawatt hours of cell manufacturing by 2035.”

As one of the world's leading importers of lithium-ion batteries, India is at the forefront of adopting advanced energy storage technologies. In FY 2023, India imported lithium-ion batteries worth $3.59 billion from countries like China, South Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. The country is home to over 100 lithium battery pack manufacturing companies, catering to the electric vehicle (EV), power electronics, and stationary storage sectors.