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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

Iola Hughes, Head of Research at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, tells ESS News that 2026 is set to be another strong year for BESS, with forecast additions exceeding 450 GWh and no material supply constraints in sight. Meanwhile, the initial impact of rising lithium prices is already visible at the cell level, but the full effect has yet to ripple through to system pricing.

GoodEnough Energy has commissioned a 7 GWh battery energy storage system (BESS) factory in Noida, marking the largest such facility in India. The company plans to expand the facility’s capacity from 7 GWh to over 25 GWh over the next three years.

ICRA expects the Indian steel industry’s decarbonization to be gradual, with near-term emission reductions driven mainly by higher adoption of renewable energy and improvements in operational efficiency, as high costs and technology constraints limit faster decarbonization.

Egypt’s Kemet has signed three agreements with Chinese companies over the last week, covering plans for a 5 GW solar cell complex, a 5 GWh battery energy storage factory and Egypt’s first solar inverter factory.