India Adds Battery Storage to Solar Projects as Grid Curtails 11% of Output
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India's solar developers are adding battery storage to photovoltaic projects to reduce curtailments, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Secretary Santosh Sarangi said on Friday. About 42 GW of solar projects still lack offtakers, with 18 GW of battery-less projects most at risk. The grid wasted 11% of solar output between April and June even as electricity demand hit a record high.
Key Facts
- About 42 GW of solar projects in India are struggling to find offtakers, with 18 GW of solar-only projects without batteries most at risk, according to Santosh Sarangi, Secretary of India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
- India's national grid wasted 11% of solar power output between April and June, failing to absorb 8 billion kWh of solar energy compared to 63 billion kWh that reached the grid, said Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State in the New and Renewable Energy Ministry.
- Grid and transmission constraints accounted for nearly two-thirds of all renewable energy curtailment at 300 GWh in the first quarter of the year, according to clean energy think tank Ember.
- India needs around 10 GWh of battery storage immediately to stop renewable energy curtailment when the coal fleet cannot ramp down below its technical minimum, Ember said in a June analysis.
Battery Storage Push
Solar power developers in India have started to add battery storage to photovoltaic projects to attract buyers and reduce the large share of curtailments for power supply that the grids are unable to absorb, Santosh Sarangi, Secretary of India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said on Friday at the BNEF Summit in New Delhi. As much as 42 GW of solar projects are still struggling to find offtakers, with about 18 GW of solar-only projects without batteries most at risk of continuing to struggle, Sarangi said. Another up to 15 GW in total projects awarded at high prices also risk failing to secure buyers, according to the official. Without battery backup, solar projects see curtailments during the hottest months and peak daytime hours.
Grid Curtailment Data
Between April and June, the hottest months of the year in India, the national grid wasted 11% of the solar power output even as electricity demand jumped to a new record high. The national grid failed to absorb 8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of solar energy compared to 63 billion kWh that reached the grid, said Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State in the New and Renewable Energy Ministry. Grid and transmission constraints accounted for nearly two-thirds of all renewable energy curtailment at 300 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the first quarter of the year, clean energy think tank Ember said in a report in May. In a separate analysis in June, Ember said that India needs around 10 GWh of battery storage immediately to stop renewable energy curtailment when the coal fleet cannot ramp down below its technical minimum.
Renewable Growth Constraint
India's electricity grid is expanding at a slower pace than the boom in renewable energy installations, leading to an increased share of clean energy curtailments and threatening to slow the solar and wind boom in the world's most populous country. "Without sufficient flexibility, including storage, this could become a constraint on the next phase of renewable energy growth," said the report's author, Neshwin Rodrigues, Senior Energy Analyst at Ember.
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India Adds Battery Storage to Solar Projects as Grid Curtails 11% of Output
