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Key Insights
Modhera, India's first 24/7 solar-powered village, showcases an integrated system of rooftop panels, carports, a power plant, and a 15MWh battery storage system.
Despite significant solar generation investments, India faces a critical shortage of energy storage capacity, threatening its ambitious 500GW non-fossil fuel target by 2030.
The government is addressing the storage deficit through new policies, tenders, and a $627 million funding scheme for battery systems, alongside a $2.1 billion production incentive.
Securing critical minerals like lithium and diversifying beyond lithium-ion technology are crucial challenges for India's long-term energy storage resilience and net-zero pledge.
Modhera village in Gujarat, India, has become the nation's first to operate entirely on solar energy 24/7, a flagship project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "one sun, one grid" vision. The village, home to over 6,000 people, integrates more than 1,300 rooftop panels, solar carports, a central power plant, and a 15MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply. This $10 million project, owned by Gujarat Power Corporation Limited, exemplifies distributed solar generation and has significantly reduced residents' electricity bills since its 2022 launch, as noted by villager Bhupendra Singh Solanki.
Despite Modhera's success as a model, India's broader renewable energy transition faces a significant hurdle: a severe lag in energy storage capacity. Rohit Patel, executive engineer at Gujarat Power Corporation Limited, highlights that "currently there's more power generation than storage in India." This imbalance threatens the country's ambitious target to achieve 500GW of non-fossil fuel power sources by 2030 and its 2070 net-zero pledge.
The Ministry of Power estimated in 2023 that India will require 336GWh of storage capacity by 2029-30, yet it is projected to have only 82GWh by 2026-27. This substantial gap is primarily due to the scarcity of critical minerals and insufficient domestic manufacturing capacity for batteries. As Deepak Thakur, CEO of Mahindra Susten, which manages the Modhera project, warns, India is "increasingly flooded with solar power from 12pm to 6pm — but without sufficient storage, this surplus could go to waste or destabilise the grid."
The Indian government acknowledges this challenge, with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy stating that "energy storage systems can be used for storing available energy from renewable energy and further can be used during peak hours of the day." To address this, the government is streamlining regulations, initiating tenders, and Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar recently announced a $627 million scheme to bolster battery storage funding. Furthermore, a $2.1 billion production incentive scheme under the "Make in India" initiative aims to localize 50GWh of advanced cell chemistry battery manufacturing.
India is also actively pursuing a "critical mineral mission," seeking international partnerships, and has recently discovered lithium reserves domestically. However, the reliance on lithium-ion technology presents supply chain vulnerabilities. Thakur emphasizes that "the future of energy isn't just lithium," advocating for exploration of alternative, long-duration energy storage technologies to ensure the resilience of India's renewable ambitions.
Modhera stands as a powerful demonstration of integrated solar-plus-storage, but its replicability nationwide hinges on a rapid and diversified expansion of India's energy storage infrastructure. Without this, the nation's ambitious renewable energy targets and its journey towards a cleaner energy future could be significantly compromised, forcing continued reliance on coal, which currently accounts for over 70% of its generation.