The Ministry of Heavy Industry has scheduled the launch of a new tender by August 10 aimed at setting up 20 gigawatts of battery energy storage capacity as part of the country's acceleration plan for electric mobility missions.
Previously, the government had attempted to allocate 50 GW of capacity under the PLI scheme for ACC battery storage, but 20 GW remained unallocated. Kamran Rizvi, the secretary of the Ministry of Heavy Industry, revealed that bids are now being invited for the unallocated 20 GW. A stakeholder consultation with potential bidders will take place on 24 July and the official call for tenders is expected to be available to the public on 10 August.
During a seminar on "Enabling Policies to Accelerate E-Mobility" at the 14th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and Mission Innovation (MI) 8 meetings in Goa, Rizvi answered a question from Amitabh Kant, the G20 Sherpa and former Niti Aayog CEO, about India's readiness in terms of battery capacity. He mentioned that of the original 30 GW of capacity allocated by the government, 20 GW was allocated to Ola Electric, whose plants will start production by the end of the current year. Rizvi explained that production would be gradual, starting at 5 GW and increasing to 20 GW in the following year. In addition, Reliance Industries (RIL) is another partner working on sodium ion cell technology, and their plant is also under development.
This initiative will make a total of 50 GW of publicly funded battery capacity accessible to the public. In addition, private companies have independently announced plans to add about 50 GW, resulting in about 100 GW of production capacity within the next 2-3 years.
Rizvi also shared that the government is working on another proposal to produce 5 GW of niche technologies for battery production. The ministry is actively seeking ten different technology partners involved in these emerging and specialized technologies, with further details to be made public in September.