India's RE sector shifts gears to develop hybrid, energy storage and next-level technology projects

Power outages and stable power during summer, especially during peak hour load time in the evenings, were a common phenomenon in most parts of India until a few years ago. In the last 10 years, India has focused on adding 500 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity, but one main concern has been lower productivity from renewables and the inability to provide adequate power during peak hour demand. The solutions suggested were to set up hybrid power (solar and wind together) and investments in storage systems.

That is fructifying as India successfully met an all-time maximum power demand of 250 GW during FY25. Thanks to significant additions in generation and transmission capacities, energy shortages at the national level have reduced to a mere 0.1% in FY25, a major improvement from 4.2% in FY14, says Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) sources. The per capita electricity consumption in India also surged to 1,395 kWh in FY24, marking a 45.8% increase (438 kWh) from 957 kWh in FY14.

Hybrid takes centre stage

With a record annual capacity addition of 29.52 GW, the total installed RE capacity in the country has reached 220.10 GW as of March 31, 2025, up from 198.75 GW in the previous fiscal. The total installed solar capacity now stands at 105.65 GW, which includes 81.01 GW from ground-mounted installations, 17.02 GW from rooftop solar, 2.87 GW from solar components of hybrid projects, and 4.74 GW from off-grid systems. The total cumulative installed wind capacity now stands at 50.04 GW.

In addition to the already installed capacities, India has 169.40 GW of renewable energy projects under implementation and 65.06 GW already tendered, says MNRE. This includes 65.29 GW from hybrid systems, round-the-clock (RTC) power, peaking power, and thermal plus RE bundling projects, a strategic shift towards ensuring grid stability and reliable supply from renewable sources.

It was in May 2022, Adani Hybrid Energy Jaisalmer One Limited (AHEJOL), a subsidiary of Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL), commissioned a 390 MW wind-solar hybrid power plant in Rajasthan, the first such hybrid power project to come up in India. Adani Green now has over 12,258 MW renewable energy capacity, of which 2,259.6 MW are wind-solar hybrid capacity, of which 2140 MW is commissioned in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. It is developing the world’s largest renewable energy plant of 30,000 MW at Khavda in Kutch, Gujarat, across 538 sq kilometres, and a good component of the project is in the hybrid model.

Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited, through its subsidiary TP Vardhaman Surya, is setting up a 966 MW RTC (Round-the-clock) hybrid renewable power project for Tata Steel, one of the biggest industrial RTC power projects in the country. The project has a hybrid renewable capacity of 379 MW solar and 587 MW wind power. Tata Power is also setting up a 400 MW hybrid project for the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) and a 200 MW Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE) project, consisting of solar, wind and BESS technologies.

JSW Neo Energy, a subsidiary of JSW Energy, which acquired a 4.7 GW renewable energy platform from O2 Power, got 1.6 GW of hybrid and 0.9 GW of complex solutions like FDRE/RTC projects from the acquisition. Apart from that, JSW Neo is also setting up many hybrid projects.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), NTPC, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) are targeting GW-scale hybrid projects, and major developers like ReNew, Azure Power, Hero Future Energies, Greenko, etc., are developing solar-wind hybrid projects.

Focus on energy storage

Leading industry body IESA (India Energy Storage Alliance) projects that India's energy storage sector is poised to expand fivefold between 2026 and 2032. The industry is expected to attract Rs 479000 crore in investment in energy storage by 2032.

''“We aim for approximately 500 gigawatt-hours by 2030 and around 5,000 gigawatt-hours by 2047. These are huge numbers. All these show that there is great potential for investment, for innovation,” RP Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), said at a recent industry event held in Gujarat.

The Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA) will soon come out with new battery energy storage standards so that both storage suppliers and users will have better clarity, says Ghanshyam Prasad, Chairperson, CEA. “The cost of energy storage systems has already seen a notable reduction, from Rs 10 lakhs per MW per month to approximately Rs .5 lakhs per MW over the past 2 to 2.5 years," he notes.

The National Electricity Plan (NEP) projects India will need an energy storage capacity of 16.13 GW (7.45 GW PSP (pumped hydro storage) and 8.68 GW BESS) with a storage capacity of 82.37 GWh (47.6 GWh from PSP and 34.72 GWh from BESS) by 2026-27. By the year 2031-32, the storage capacity demand is projected to increase to 73.93 GW (26.69 GW PSP and 47.24 GW BESS), with storage of 411.4 GWh (175.18 GWh from PSP and 236.22 GWh from BESS).