India will need investments worth up to Rs 33,750 crore to achieve the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme target of setting up 50 GWh of lithium-ion cell and battery manufacturing plants, according to a Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) study released on Tuesday, February 21.

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The report said India requires up to 903 GWh of energy storage to decarbonise its power and mobility sectors by 2030 and expects lithium-ion batteries to cover the majority of this demand.

The latest CEEW study — to analyse and calculate the material and financial requirements to indigenise lithium-ion battery manufacturing — is based on the minimum manufacturing plant capacity allocated under the PLI scheme, which is 5 GWh.

The report also hinted at the government announcing its discovery of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district earlier in February.

Rishabh Jain, Senior Programme Lead at CEEW, said, “To fulfil the overall battery demand, India will need 969-1,452 kilotonnes of anode, cathode, and electrolyte material (the components for a battery) between 2022 and 2030."

The report added that these plants would require 250 GWh of power annually for a 5 GWh plant and reliable power supply.

Dhruv Warrior, a research analyst, said, “Currently, India is import-dependent but the government has already started mobilising resources to indigenise battery cell manufacturing… The study estimates that the share of upstream component manufacturing and material processing can be as high as 61 percent. Going forward, India must develop its capabilities to build skills, technology knowhow and infrastructure to indigenise this part of the value chain too.”

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(Edited by : Vivek Dubey)