Reliance Industries Ltd. has won a bid to build a 10 gigawatt-hour battery unit, a move that will help billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate deepen its footprint in the new energy space.
The Mumbai-based company outcompeted six firms to become the sole developer, taking advantage of an incentive program rewarding industrial output, according to a statement by the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
As its grid expands and its transport system electrifies, India may see battery demand rise to as much as 260 gigawatt-hour by 2030, according to government projections. That will be needed to balance the intermittency of
renewable sources
such as wind and solar, which are set to help the country reach 500 gigawatt of non-fossil fuel capacity by the end of the decade.
To support the transition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2021 approved a 181 billion rupee ($2.2 billion) ‘production-linked’ incentive plan to boost the country’s battery storage capacity to 50 gigawatt-hour. Three firms were allocated a total capacity of 30 gigawatt-hour in March 2022.
Ambani announced a $7.2 billion investment to enter the green energy segment in 2021, with plans to build four gigafactories making solar modules, hydrogen, fuel cells and a battery cluster. A year later he raised the planned spending to $8.9 billion.
