Grid-scale storage to match the solar we have built
Energy & batteries · infrastructure that is not built
India has added renewable generation capacity at remarkable speed. Storage has not kept pace, so a grid with a great deal of midday solar and very little storage still burns coal in the evening — which is when demand actually peaks.
Why it matters
Without storage, additional solar capacity eventually stops displacing fossil generation and starts being curtailed instead. Storage, not generation, is now the binding constraint on the transition.
Where we actually are
Battery storage and pumped hydro projects are being tendered and built, with storage increasingly attached to renewable tenders as a requirement. Deployed capacity remains small relative to installed renewable generation.
What it would take
Pumped hydro where the geography allows, batteries where it does not, and market rules that pay for flexibility rather than only for energy. The cell supply chain entry on this list is the upstream half of the same problem.