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					</table>Renewable energy implementing agencies are increasingly coming out with tenders for renewables plus storage in response to the strong demand from the industry, Sunil Sharma, Director (NRE and RCM), Ministry of Power, has said.
The 2020s are the decade of energy storage, Sharma said at a panel discussion titled ‘Energy Storage and Green Hydrogen: The Missing Links in India’s Renewable Energy Transition&#8217; at the <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/event/renewables-summit-2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mercom India Renewables Summit</a>, 2025, held on July 24 and 25 in New Delhi.
The other panelists were Inder Bhambra, Chief Business Officer at <a href="https://www.envision-energy.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Envision Energy India</a>; Shri Venkatesh, Founding Partner at <a href="https://skvlawoffices.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SKV Law Offices</a>; Bhavesh Kumar Rathod, Founder and Director at <a href="https://www.soleosenergy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Soleos Solar Energy</a>; and Inderjeet Singh, Vice President- Technology, Green Hydrogen and Derivatives at <a href="https://www.adani.com/businesses/energy-utilities/green-hydrogen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adani New Industries</a>.
Wendy Prabhu, the Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group, moderated the session.
Given the reducing prices of energy storage, many commercial and industrial (C&amp;I) consumers would find it lucrative to go for storage instead of energy banking. “However, they may not rely on banking with distribution companies (DISCOMs) for the long term. DISCOMs have limitations in providing power banking facilities, and they will limit banking when the threshold is reached. However, as of now, we are not considering incentivizing behind-the-meter projects,” Sharma said.
On the residential sector side, he said discussions were on within the Power Ministry on adding storage as part of the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, but it would take a few years for its implementation.
Sharma also highlighted that some DISCOMs have started considering using BESS with solar to complement their existing distribution and transmission infrastructure better.
Rathod of Soleos said lithium iron phosphate (LFP) has emerged as the obvious choice of battery chemistry for manufacturers.
Highlighting the reasons for LFP adoption, Rathod said, “Lithium prices have gone down, and it also has good thermal management capacities. The application of LFP is diverse, from mobiles to giant storage systems.” At this level of applications, the scale of manufacturing increases and prices reduce.
He added that sodium-ion is a promising alternative technology, especially in light of India having abundant resources for sodium.
Rathod said the industry and utilities have different perspectives on energy storage, but it can benefit them equally. “The industry would like to shave off peak power and get cheaper electricity. For behind-the-meter solar power projects, they want to add storage. On the utility side, they have to invest more in infrastructure with the growth of renewables like wind and solar. Energy storage helps the utilities in reducing the investment in the grid.”
Bhambra of Envision said that for BESS manufacturers, the prices being discovered right now were not comforting. These prices are primarily driven by oversupply from China. “However, within six months to one year, BESS prices should stabilize,” he said.
The momentum of energy storage was driven by policy, peak power, and round-the-clock tenders, but of late, investors had started deploying capital into projects before the declaration of an auction.
“Today, a combination of wind-solar and storage can be the base load power. The BESS tariffs won are lower than the tariffs of a thermal greenfield power station,” added Bhambra.
He felt that for the success of energy storage, the government should ensure that there are no outages and failures like those that have occurred in some developed countries.
Energy Storage Challenges
Venkatesh of SKV Law Offices spoke about the problems arising from state electricity regulatory commissions not abiding by the guidelines of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).
“While CERC has issued regulations on scheduling, dispatch, and grid code, the same is not being replicated in the states. The biggest challenge is the acceptance of energy storage systems in the grid at the state level. Secondly, DISCOMs are hesitant towards standalone energy storage systems (ESS),” he said.
Venkatesh felt that the Electricity Act must be amended to incorporate ESS as an integral part of the grid.
According to him, DISCOMs will perceive ESS as a viable option if the state regulators adopt CERC’s regulations.
Given the risks, Venkatesh warned developers that they must be wary of the risks involved with standalone ESS.
“If developers look at standalone ESS, there are state-wise connectivity issues, and whether the regulators permit standalone ESS. Solar projects are exempted from environmental impact assessments, but ESS comes under battery waste management rules, which have significant consequences,” Venkatesh said.
Venkatesh also highlighted the lack of separate licensing for ESS.
“ESS assumes the nature of the project it is bundled with. Under our plenary law, distribution and transmission are regulated, and therefore, regulations need to ensure that ESS does not require separate licensing. Regulators also need to look at ESS as revenue optimization in terms of contractual delivery, arbitrage, and grid frequency moderation,” he said.
Growth of Green Hydrogen
Inderjeet Singh of Adani New Industries said that his company had nearly 60% to 70% of the green hydrogen market share and that it was planning to establish a complete ecosystem for green hydrogen.
“We are going to set up the complete ecosystem for developing green hydrogen and its derivatives on the west coast of India. This plan will be realized within the coming two to three years,” he said.
Singh added that Adani already had a 4 GW module, ingot, and wafer manufacturing facility on India’s west coast where it was developing an alkaline electrolyzer manufacturing facility.
“Technology transfer has already been applied to prototypes of 18 kV and 80 kV electrolyzers. It has been operational for four to five months. We are going to declare the 5 MW stack in the market,” Singh added.
Singh also informed that Adani had been operating a pilot off-grid project of 5 MW with alkaline technology for more than six months.
He said the company would be able to generate green hydrogen and its derivatives at a lower cost than in Europe or China.
Singh said green hydrogen molecule prices can be brought down if the developers can share the infrastructure developed by private and public entities.
About the prices, he said, “In the Indian market, we are seeing $4/kg for green hydrogen according to recent tenders. Parallelly, natural gas costs in India are continuously increasing, reaching close to $14-15/million British thermal units (MMBtu). In Europe and other countries, the natural gas cost was $2-3/MMBtu, but the price has increased to $12-13/MMBtu due to global issues.”
Singh stated that Adani was producing gray hydrogen at $2/kg and green hydrogen at $4/kg. With the increased volumes of green hydrogen, the company would be able to compete with gray hydrogen prices.

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					</table>In a first for the sector, four China-based wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEM) have made it to the global top five rankings, according to a recent analysis by<a href="https://www.woodmac.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Wood Mackenzie</a>.
China accounted for nearly 65% of the global wind generation capacity in 2023. China-headquartered wind turbine maker<a href="https://www.goldwind.com/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Goldwind</a> assumed the leading position for the second consecutive year with a record capacity of 16.3 GW.
In the second position was <a href="https://www.envision-group.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Envision</a>, with 14.1 GW, followed by the only non-Chinese player,<a href="https://www.vestas.com/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Vestas</a>, with 11.5 GW. <a href="https://windeyenergy.com/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windey</a> and <a href="https://www.myse.com.cn/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MingYang</a> were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, with 10.1 GW and 9.9 GW.
According to the report, the top five OEMs accounted for 54% of the global wind markets.
“China’s first batch of massive renewable bases have a 2024 deadline on the horizon, which has accelerated installations to an unprecedented pace of 74.7 GW. This combined with a mature supply chain and ambitious provincial targets, is pushing wind deployment to an unprecedented level in China,” said Endri Lico, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-65891" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Screenshot-2024-05-07-103107.jpg" alt="Woodmac Wind OEM Report Chart 01" width="600" height="515" />
In its global wind turbine analysis for the first quarter of 2024, Wood Mackenzie found that the global wind turbine order intake hit a new high after procuring 155 GW for the year, an increase of 16 GW from 2022.
The report said Chinese developers ordered almost 100 GW of turbines in 2023, which is said to have significantly benefited their domestic OEMs. The onshore wind capacity hit a record 67.8 GW, with nearly 7 GW of newly installed capacity coming from China, registering a year-over-year (YoY) increase of 41%. The report mentioned that this ultimately drove six Chinese OEMs into the global top 10 rankings.
Further, competitive pricing amongst 14 different Chinese OEMs last year led to turbine prices dropping by 16% and 9% onshore and offshore, respectively.
Western Wind OEM Market
Vestas, the only Western OEM that made it to the global top five, emerged as the market leader for the sixth consecutive year, with more than 10 GW installed outside of China.
In the same year, Siemens Gamesa (<a href="https://www.siemensgamesa.com/en-int" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SGRE</a>), an offshore and onshore wind turbine provider with a 9.7 GW installed capacity portfolio, overtook General Electric (<a href="https://www.ge.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GE</a>) for the second position.
<a href="https://www.nordex-online.com/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nordex</a> came fourth with 6.4 GW, and<a href="https://www.enercon.de/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Enercon</a> came fifth with 2.4 GW. Overall, the top five Western OEMs represented 93% of the global volumes outside of China.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-65892" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Screenshot-2024-05-07-103142.jpg" alt="Woodmac Wind OEM Report Chart 02" width="600" height="589" />
Although Western markets contributed to the highest order intake by adding a record-high capacity of 55 GW, 2023 was also the year where the OEMs in the advanced economies, especially European and American companies, suffered financial losses, with the wind market plateauing at 40 GW. This was a 3% YoY drop, the lowest since the market slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Western OEMs practiced commercial discipline, showing little appetite for price reduction to grow market share. 2023 saw some improvement in financial performance as some of the supply chain disruptions eased, but quality and reliability issues have emerged as another source of instability for western OEMs,” commented Lico.
The global insights firm also predicted 2024 to be a strong year for the off and onshore wind sector, with several countries strengthening their policy frameworks and acting as key determinants in pricing dynamics.
Earlier this month, the global cumulative wind power capacity<a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/global-wind-installations-2023#:~:text=China%20remained%20the%20offshore%20wind,11%)%20more%20than%20Europe."> surpassed</a> the 1 TW mark in 2023, a 13% YoY growth where China and the U.S. remained the top global markets for onshore wind additions.
As per an earlier Wood Mackenzie report, China is on track to<a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/china-230-gw-solar-and-wind-2023"> install</a> 230 GW of wind and solar capacity in 2023.

Chinese Wind Turbine Manufacturers Account for Majority Global Market Share

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					</table>Global wind turbine orders recorded a 12% year-over-year increase in the first half (1H) of 2023 with 69.5 GW of order activity, according to the global research and consultancy group <a href="https://www.woodmac.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wood Mackenzie</a>.
The analysis by the group revealed the increased offshore order activity and the orders from outside of China driving the increase, up 47% year-over-year (YoY) increase to over 25 GW.
Wind turbine orders in North America alone reached 7.7 GW, a 305% YoY jump from 1.9 GW. Of these, two offshore wind turbine orders in the region accounted for 49% of the total capacity.
Luke Lewandowski, Vice President of Global Renewables Research at Wood Mackenzie, said, “Supply chain challenges remain, but conditions have improved enough to spark procurement decisions. Momentum from the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S. has helped to motivate order activity, although increasing clarity and market certainty will drive an even larger volume.”
China continues to dominate the market, with 44 GW of order activity recorded during the first half of 2023. The total orders in Q2 accounted for $25.3 billion and $40.5 billion in 1H 2023.
Lewandowski added, “China’s intake continues to be incredibly impressive as well, even with activity remaining flat through the first half of the year. Demand in the global offshore market, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, has been one of the main drivers of this growth.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58215" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Wood-Mackenzie-Wind-Orders-1H-2023.jpg" alt="Wood Mackenzie Wind Orders 1H 2023" width="606" height="447" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Wood-Mackenzie-Wind-Orders-1H-2023.jpg 606w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Wood-Mackenzie-Wind-Orders-1H-2023-300x221.jpg 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Wood-Mackenzie-Wind-Orders-1H-2023-600x443.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 606px) 100vw, 606px" />
Source: Wood Mackenzie
The order capacity for offshore wind turbines was recorded at 12 GW during 1H 2023, a 26% YoY increase. It accounted for 17% of all wind turbine order capacity.
During the second quarter alone, the offshore wind turbine orders witnessed a 48% YoY increase, totaling 9.1 GW.
According to Lewandowski, the offshore wind market momentum has been building for some time now, and many deals were conditional as project developers waited for approvals.
He said, “We saw several really big deals officially reach a final investment decision in Q2, including orders of 2,640 MW and 1,176 MW in North America, which helped drive the record numbers and breathe some life into these markets.”
The analysis considers it significant that these deals were confirmed during a difficult time for the wind original equipment manufacturers and amidst the cancellation of several offtake agreements for large projects.
Envision recorded the highest order intake during 1H 2023 with 9.7 GW, followed by Windey at 8.7 GW and Siemens Gamesa at 8.2 GW.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy gained the top spot in new order capacity across both the onshore and offshore sectors, with 5.9 GW recorded in Q2 alone. The company set an offshore intake quarterly record with its SG 14.X DD turbine.
Goldwind ranked second with 4.9 GW of order activity during Q2, followed by Windey at 4.4 GW.
A recent Horizons report from Wood Mackenzie <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/global-offshore-wind-supply-billion-investment-by-2026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that the global supply chain would need a secured investment of $27 billion by 2026 to achieve a fivefold increase in the annual offshore wind installations outside of China by 2030.
In India, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/mnre-strategy-developing-offshore-wind-projects" target="_blank" rel="noopener">formulated</a> three models for developing offshore wind energy projects, especially along the country’s extreme southern and western shorelines.

US, Europe Drive Increase in Global Wind Turbine Orders by 12% YoY in 1H 2023

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