Reliance New Energy Limited, part of the massive Indian conglomerate, has acquired LFP battery manufacturer Lithium Werks for US$61 million two months after buying a sodium-ion battery producer.

New guidelines for procurement and utilisation of battery energy storage systems (BESS) as assets for generation, transmission and distribution and ancillary services have been published by India’s Ministry of Power.

Demand for batteries in India will rise to between 106GWh and 260GWh by 2030 across sectors including transport, consumer electronics and stationary energy storage, with the country racing to build up a localised value chain. 

Independent power producers (IPPs) Greenko and Ayana Renewable Power will leverage large-scale energy storage to give industrial customers in India ‘round-the-clock’ renewable power supply.

Responding to increasing demand for dispatchable renewable energy resources, GE Renewable Energy has opened a factory for ‘Renewable Hybrid’ technology solutions and equipment in Chennai, India. 

Microsoft, Google and 10 other companies have joined the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council, a CEO-led organisation launched at COP26 in November to push for the global deployment of technologies that can store and discharge energy for eight hours or longer.

The Indian government’s decision to classify grid-scale energy storage as infrastructure addresses the industry’s “biggest concerns” by making investments easier to facilitate, Energy-Storage.news has heard. 

A clarification of the status of energy storage systems (ESS) in India’s power sector, issued by the government’s Ministry of Power, has described the various technologies as “essential” to achieving national renewable energy goals. 

“Extensive works” to house two 125MW turbines have begun at Australia’s first new pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plant in nearly 40 years, developer Genex Power has said.