Expanding storage for green energy

The challenges of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables (RE), such as solar, wind, and hydropower, are increasing as the share of RE in electricity grows.

- JYOTI PARIKH & KIRIT PARIKH

India's total RE capacity has already reached nearly 43 per cent and is set to rise to 50 per cent by 2030, with the ultimate goal of achieving 100 per cent non-fossil capacity.

As RE sources are not available consistently round the clock, an uninterrupted 24-hour power supply will increasingly depend on readily available storage. There are several energy storage solutions, but more reliable and significant at a grid level are battery storage and Pumped Hydropower Energy Storage (PHES). The battery storage can provide grid support for only a few hours. They have the challenges of dependence on rare minerals like lithium that require prospecting, mining, extraction, recycling, and disposal.

Moreover, the batteries, whether imported or not, have a short lifespan and need to be replaced every few years. For many decades, a reliable and trusted storage solution has been river-based PHES. But its further expansion carries risks of land acquisition, disruption of river flows, and potential impacts on agriculture and farmers downstream, which could lead to social protests, and—most of all—uncertainties due to droughts and floods, which are expected to increase as a result of climate change.

The importance of storage systems in the RE ecosystem is so high that multilateral banks and philanthropic foundations have set up global storage partnerships. National governments are helping to encourage storage solutions by seeking lithium and other rare minerals within their own countries or exploring partnerships abroad.