With the increasing penetration of “infirm” power like solar and wind across the world,there are rising concerns about grid-management due to the increased challenges in integrating renewable power sources to the grid. Energy storage is a solution to this problem, but battery storage is currently quite expensive and there are technological challenges associated with storing energy economically.
Germany, which has high levels of renewables penetration, has given a policy push to mainstream energy storage. According to the pv-magazine “From May 1, the purchase of new battery storage for photovoltaic systems will be subsidized up to €660/kW of solar power, said Germany’s solar industry association, BSW-Solar, in a statement released. Plant operators can apply for financial support for photovoltaic projects that are installed in 2013 and have a maximum capacity of 30 kW.” German government is actively supporting more and more self-consumption of PV energy by promoting energy storage.
According to market research firm IHS, PV storage market is estimated to touch $19 Billion in 2017, from less than $200 million in 2012.
This is just PV energy storage. And energy storage goes much beyond PV storage.
But where does India stand in this market? Can India become one of the technology leaders in battery storage, or are we going to be also-runs? That is an open question. But the market is going to be quite big in India. Unlike in Germany or other European countries where energy storage serves the purpose of mainly renewables integration, in India, the purpose is to store energy as a back-up against frequent power outages. (Click here for a short overview of the Indian energy storage sector).
In an interview for Intersolar India, Dr.Rahul Walawalkar, Executive Director at India Energy Storage Alliance, shares some of the technical and commercial aspects of energy storage. According to him, Lead Acid technology dominates the Indian market but several global companies are keen on bringing superior technologies to India. The solar and wind integration market using energy storage would be approximately 1 GW each and the total energy storage market is estimated to grow to 20 GW by 2020.
The interview can be found here.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to RESolve Energy Consultants : Perspectives and Insights by Email
_____________________________________________________________________________________________