Pre-Budget 2026: Solar and storage industry calls for tax reforms, PLI expansion, and circular economy push
Ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget 2026–27, stakeholders across India’s solar and energy storage ecosystem have urged the government to focus on tax reforms, expansion of production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes with targeted allocations, faster viability gap funding (VGF) disbursements, additional funding for residential rooftop solar, improved access to long-term and affordable green finance, and a stronger push for circular economy initiatives and grid modernisation.
Juniper Green Energy fully commissions India’s first merchant battery energy storage system
Of the 100 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), 60 MWh was commissioned in Dec. 2025 and the remaining 40 MWh on Jan. 23, 2026.
IndiGrid raises INR 1,500 crore through institutional placement
India’s first and largest publicly listed power sector Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT), IndiGrid, has successfully raised INR 1,500 crore through an institutional placement (IP). The placement was oversubscribed by around two times and saw strong participation from both domestic and global institutional investors.
China completes first full-scale underwater pumped storage trial at 65 m depth
DEC’s “Dongchu No. 1” prototype completed more than 100 charge-discharge cycles at 65 meters depth in a freshwater lake.
Indian startup Meine Electric raises $750,000 for iron–air long-duration energy storage
Indian energy storage startup Meine Electric has raised $750,000 (INR 6.7 crore) in a pre-seed funding round to support its transition from laboratory-scale prototypes to pilot-ready iron–air battery systems.
India’s PLI scheme achieves just 2.8% of targeted 50 GWh battery manufacturing capacity so far
Despite strong industry interest, India’s Advanced Chemistry Cell Production Linked Incentive (ACC PLI) scheme, launched in October 2021, is yet to translate policy ambition into realised capacity. As of October 2025, only 2.8% (1.4 GWh) of the targeted 50 GWh capacity has been commissioned within the stipulated timeline, entirely by Ola Electric—according to a new report by JMK Research and the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
NTPC invites EOI for compressed-air energy storage projects
NTPC has invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the development of utility-scale projects for compressed air energy storage, including liquid air energy storage and other advanced compressed air-based long-duration energy storage systems.
Why India’s digital future will be built at the edge
The centralized cloud model is now under strain. India alone is estimated to have reached roughly 2,070 MW of data center capacity by the end of 2025, up from about 1,255 MW in 2024, driven by AI adoption, 5G rollout, and video led consumption, even as power, land, and network constraints become more visible. At the same time, global data center markets are grappling with power constraints, rising energy costs, and land limitations, making the continued expansion of a few large hubs increasingly inefficient.
AM Group to set up 1 GW AI compute facility backed by round-the-clock renewable power supply in Uttar Pradesh
AM Group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Invest UP, the Government of Uttar Pradesh, to develop a 1 GW high-performance computing (HPC) hub, backed by renewable energy, to serve global AI workloads. The project will entail an investment of around $25 billion.
ChemVolt Global announces 5 GWh lithium-ion cell manufacturing project in Andhra Pradesh
Kuldeep Gupta-led ChemVolt Global has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to establish a 5 GWh lithium-ion cell manufacturing gigafactory in the state, with a planned investment of INR 2,500 crore.
