- The fall in battery prices by 2025 could drive the widespread adoption of solar plus battery solutions, leading to the realisation of India’s ambitious target.
- The ambitious target is one of the five commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2021 Glasgow climate talks.
The anticipated decline in battery prices by 2025 would drive India to achieve and exceed its ambitious target of 500 GW (gigawatts) of renewable energy capacity by 2030. The Director General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), Ajay Mathur, disclosed this in an interview with PTI.
Mathur stated that the fall in battery prices by 2025 could drive the widespread adoption of solar plus battery solutions. This would help India attain its ambitious target, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five commitments during the 2021 Glasgow climate talks. According to him, competition among battery manufacturers, the evolution of battery technologies, the reduction in the amount of materials used and the emergence of diverse battery types tailored to specific needs would contribute to the declining costs of batteries.
“If you are putting 500 gigawatts during the day, you are setting up costly storage to ensure that you also use it at night. Now, expensive storage implies that you and I pay a higher price for electricity than we can afford. Looking at a future where more expensive electricity is available doesn’t seem right in a country already starving for electricity and with limited ability to pay for electricity.
“It is possible that the future may come around if battery prices fall. The ISA’s forecasts indicate this would happen this year, or 2024 or 2025. If that happens, then solar plus batteries become the energy source of choice because they’re the cheapest. In that case, India will not only achieve 500 gigawatts, it will exceed the target,” he said.
Mathur further said global climate finance distribution remains distorted and that reforming multilateral development banks and facilitating renewable energy investments have been priority areas of India’s G20 presidency.