India’s clean energy transition is entering a more complex phase. The challenge is no longer merely producing renewable electricity but ensuring it can be stored, dispatched, and integrated reliably across the grid.
Emerging as the third-largest renewable energy market, India is making remarkable progress. It has already achieved 50% renewable energy installed capacity while reducing its emissions intensity by 36%. While these achievements are strengthening the nation’s position in the global energy transition, they also underscore a new reality: the urgent need for innovative storage and system reliability solutions. Globally, battery storage is now one of the fastest-growing technologies. In 2025 alone, about 108 GW of new battery storage capacity was deployed worldwide, representing a 40% increase since 2024. With a rising share of renewables, energy storage becomes a determining factor in how effectively countries balance supply and demand, grid stability, and energy security.
Currently, lithium-ion batteries dominate the battery market. Driven by energy storage and electric mobility, the demand for lithium-ion batteries grew by nearly 30% in 2024. However, for an emerging economy like India, dependence on a single storage solution can come with significant strategic, economic, and technological risks.
India remains heavily dependent on imports for battery minerals and processing. At a time when critical mineral supply chains are becoming increasingly concentrated, this dependence heightens vulnerability to external shocks and disruptions. Today, over half the world’s lithium and cobalt raw material processing is concentrated in China, which commands nearly 85% of global battery cell production capacity.
{{/usCountry}}India remains heavily dependent on imports for battery minerals and processing. At a time when critical mineral supply chains are becoming increasingly concentrated, this dependence heightens vulnerability to external shocks and disruptions. Today, over half the world’s lithium and cobalt raw material processing is concentrated in China, which commands nearly 85% of global battery cell production capacity.
{{/usCountry}}Recent volatility in lithium prices following the electric vehicle (EV) boom also reveals how susceptible battery economics remain to commodity shocks. For utilities and consumers, this raises the question of whether large-scale deployment of lithium systems could result in price fluctuations in the long term. At the same time, there are also environmental and social implications of mining and refining critical minerals that must be carefully considered.
Non-lithium storage solutions are not only a technological advantage. They’re becoming critical to energy security, supply chain resilience, and diversification. At the same time, storage is moving beyond short-duration use, with applications ranging from electric vehicles to grid balancing and long-duration and decentralised systems.
Recognizing the risks and opportunity, governments and industry players are exploring alternative storage technologies, such as sodium-ion, zinc-based, and long-duration substitutes, to reduce dependence, diversify production, and strengthen resilience. The future of energy storage, therefore, is unlikely to be defined by a single technology. It will, instead, be characterised by a diversified ecosystem where different solutions work alongside to cater to varied requirements.
In this regard, India’s challenge is not a shortage of innovative ideas. It is a shortage of pathways that help those ideas scale and reach bigger markets.
Around 70% of solutions needed for achieving climate goals by 2030 are not yet fully commercialized or lack enabling pathways. The challenge is particularly acute for hardware and deep-tech solutions that stall because of capital requirements, long development cycles, and complex testing needs. At the same time, studies suggest that nearly half of the emissions reductions needed globally by 2050 are expected to come from technologies currently at the prototype or demonstration stage.
The real reason innovation stalls is ecosystem gaps. While for startups these gaps translate to a lack of access to opportunities, testing environments, and commercialisation support, for investors and utilities they mean an inability to identify viable and investable solutions. This is why ecosystem building matters as much as technology development.
Breakthrough technologies succeed when institutions, infrastructure, capital, and market access grow around them. Collaboration between industry, government, and investors increasingly determines deployment outcomes. For climate-tech innovators, support must extend beyond grants and competitions. They need mentorship, industry partnerships, market access, and viable pathways to scale. This is where utilities and DISCOMs can play a crucial role as validators, deployment partners, and demand creators.
Encouragingly, new collaborative models are increasingly moving beyond prize-based approaches toward validation, pilot testing, technical assistance, and deployment pathways. Initiatives such as the IESA Startup and Innovation platform, Breakthrough Energy Ventures founded by Bill Gates, and the Energy Transitions Innovation Challenge (ENTICE) by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, reflect a broader recognition of ecosystem support that goes beyond funding.
Ultimately, India’s energy transition depends not on a single breakthrough technology, but on creating the conditions that enable multiple technologies to compete, mature, and scale. Energy security requires diversified storage pathways, while long-term competitiveness depends on resilient innovation ecosystems.
The goal ahead is clear: to build resilience, self-sufficiency, and domestic capabilities that support a secure, reliable, and future-ready clean energy system.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by Debmalya Sen, president, India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), and jury member, ENTICE 3.0.