India’s Essar Sees Lower Battery Prices Boosting Green Plans

(Bloomberg) --

India’s Essar Group is planning to build eight gigawatts of round-the-clock clean power capacity, helped by falling battery prices that should allow faster adoption of energy storage technologies in the country.

It will be the coal and gas firm’s first foray into renewables, and will see solar, wind and battery storage built out over five years, according to Prashant Ruia, chairman of Essar Capital Holdings. He spoke to Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

India is aiming to reach 500 gigawatts of clean power capacity by 2030 and affordable storage solutions for intermittent sources like solar and wind are crucial in a country that still gets nearly three-quarters of its electricity from coal. 

Average lithium-ion battery pack prices declined 20% in 2024 from a year earlier, the steepest drop since 2017, thanks to overcapacity in battery cells and lower component prices, according to BloombergNEF.  

If the trend continues, that could help clean power compete with coal power, Ruia said.

Commenting on US President Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies announced after his inauguration, Ruia said “we still have to see what the real impact of those announcements will be.”

“But the fact that we’re going to move towards transition, fossil fuel replacement technologies is inevitable,” he said. “The question is how fast we do it.”  

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