- The budget included more than US$4 billion for capital investments into energy transition and net zero initiatives.
- Climate change economist at the World Resources Institute India (WRI India) tweeted the Union Budget is far more than just “a year’s balancing of revenues and expenditures”.
Dr Rahul Walawalkar, president of the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), speaking with Energy-Storage news a few days after India’s Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman presented the country’s Union Budget 2023-2024, said, “Overall, we are very happy with the direction of the budget”. The budget included more than US$4 billion for capital investments into energy transition and net zero initiatives, Viability Gap Funding for 4,000MWh of battery storage projects and the promise of a future strategy on pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) among its highlights.
Walawalkar noted that support for the downstream deployment end of the industry represents moves taken to shore up the supply side are also important. As Ulka Kelkar, climate change economist at the World Resources Institute India (WRI India), tweeted, the Union Budget is far more than just “a year’s balancing of revenues and expenditures”.
Kelkar, while describing the funding for battery storage as one of the catalysts for that growth, said, “We look to it for the drivers of economic growth over the coming decades.”