Building a battery manufacturing industry in India – Vision Mechatronics interview
Dr Rashi Gupta, Director at Vision Mechatronics discusses the EV landscape in India, particularly focusing on the potential for battery manufacturing. While there are currently many challenges, like a lack of raw materials and infrastructure, the opportunities are immense.
India moots world’s largest solar tender – of 100 GW
If implemented, the huge tendering exercise would dwarf anything that has gone before it. Minister explains bidding will also include solar manufacturing and storage elements.
Minister outlines plan to become global renewables leader, at Intersolar Europe
Underlining India’s commitment to becoming the global renewable energy leader, Shri Anand Kumar, secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said the country plans 500 GW of capacity by 2030. He also underlined plans to become a solar and storage manufacturing hub; and said the International Solar Alliance needs to widen its membership.
Falling battery costs to push solar, wind to 50% electricity generation by 2050, but electricity still failing CO₂ reduction targets – BNEF
Solar PV capacity is set to grow 17-fold, and wind six-fold, by 2050, to account for nearly half of global electricity generation, predicts BNEF, while investments will reach US$11.5 trillion. Cost reductions will drive this charge, particularly in the battery market, which will benefit from the EV manufacturing ramp up. Despite this, the electricity sector is still failing to bring CO₂ emissions down to the required levels, with its continued dependence on gas.
India to launch its own battery cell production
India’s PV sector is expanding at a serious pace, creating jobs and further securing energy supply for many businesses. Yet, sourcing battery cell technology at the current rate resulted in annual foreign exchange of Rs. 1012 crore creating deficits, that hopefully can be averted in the future.
Mahindra Electric to develop integrated electric mobility ecosystem in Tamil Nadu
The EV manufacturer will develop a complete system encompassing electric vehicles (EVs), smart parking, charging infrastructure and software integration platform NEMO for the experimental township of Auroville in Tamil Nadu. Mahindra has also unveiled an energy storage solution for EVs and will help harness renewable power.
Energy storage will be a challenge as India targets 100 GW solar PV capacity
For off-grid solar PV installations, the high cost of batteries is the biggest bottleneck. However, the cost of storage is expected to drop as technology advances and volumes go up.
Affordability and lack of charging points stalls electric vehicle take-up in India: Bloomberg
Bloomberg New Energy Finance says EVs will make up only 7% of new car sales in nation by 2030, compared to a predicted 44% for European sales, 41% in China, 34% in the US and 17% in Japan
By 2030, EVs could outnumber the total vehicles in India today
To smoothen this transition, the country needs to build fast solar PV-powered charging stations. In 2017, there were only 220-250 operational charging stations in India, compared to 56,000 petrol stations.
Uncertainty and opportunity loom for renewables sector — report
Uncertainty in the renewable energy sector continues to drive a “relentless focus on cost” to soften the impact of protectionism, subsidy cuts and rising interest rates throughout the world, EY says in its latest Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) report. But the evolving outlook for project finance, as well as the gradual maturation of technologies such as blockchain, present new challenges and opportunities.
