India Plans for Battery Storage Plant | 29 Jul 2019
The Government of India will invest around $4 billion to set up at least four Tesla-style Gigafactories for battery production.
- The initiative is part of Government's plan to transition to electric vehicles, cut down pollution and reduce dependency on foreign oil imports.
Background
- In Union Budget 2019, the Government announced tax waivers for setting up mega-manufacturing plants for solar photovoltaic cells, lithium storage batteries and solar electric charging infrastructure.
- According to NITI Aayog, India will need 6 gigawatt-scale facilities with each having 10 GWh capacity by 2025 and 12 by 2030 to cater the domestic demand.
How the move will benefit India?
- It will secure India’s energy needs.
- It will enable India to develop an electric vehicle ecosystem.
- It will reduce India’s import bill on batteries as well as on fuel.
- It will be helpful in containing pollution by promoting clean energy and will help India to achieve its INDC targets.
Challenges for India
- Financial viability of project.
- Technological barriers.
- Lack of stable policy for Electric Vehicle.
- Enabling infrastructural issues like land acquisition.
Recently, the Government has also launched the National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage to drive mobility solutions and promote clean, connected, shared, sustainable and holistic mobility initiatives.