mumbai, Dec. 24 -- For years, battery storage sat on the fringes of India's clean energy plans. Falling costs and a stronger policy push are now pulling it into the mainstream, setting off a fresh investment cycle in battery energy storage systems (BESS). Together, these shifts are unlocking investments of up to Rs.1.4 lakh crore by 2030, as energy companies, developers and manufacturers bet on large-scale storage to stabilize renewable power, support grid reliability and back India's rapid expansion of solar and wind capacity. Energy storage systems address a key shortcoming of renewable energy, which is intermittency. Having reliable energy storage system infrastructure is crucial for India to ramp up its clean energy capacity, meet its climate change obligations, and wean off its addiction to coal. Among the largest investors are Reliance Industries, Adani Green Energy, Waaree Energies, JSW Energy, and Premier Energies, as per public statements made by these companies. While some, such as Waaree, are investing in manufacturing battery cells and packs for storage systems, Adani Green is deploying batteries at scale for some of India's largest storage projects. Reliance Industries, meanwhile, has charted an end-to-end strategy-from cell manufacturing to battery assembly and deployment in large BESS installations. The surge in investment interest has been led by a sharp fall in battery prices over the past few years. Battery costs dropped below $100 per kWh in 2025, compared with nearly $200 in 2019, according to estimates by credit rating agency ICRA. "The decline in battery costs has hastened adoption of battery storage at the grid level," ICRA analysts said in a note published this month, estimating that 610 GWh of BESS capacity was installed globally in 2025-68% higher than the previous year. In India, however, cumulative BESS capacity remains modest at around 0.5 GWh as of June this year, according to estimates from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). For context, 1 GWh is sufficient to power around 10,000 average Indian homes for a month. Battery costs are still too high to make many BESS projects commercially viable in India, ICRA analysts noted. However, "the expectation of a further reduction in battery prices may improve the cost economics for energy storage over the coming decade," they added. Cumulative investments in BESS could reach about Rs.1.4 lakh crore by 2030, the agency estimated. A strong policy push from New Delhi is also accelerating momentum in the sector. The government is implementing a Rs.5,400-crore viability gap funding (VGF) scheme to support 30 GWh of BESS capacity, aimed at crowding in private investments of around Rs.33,000 crore. This expands an earlier programme that had earmarked Rs.3,760 crore for 13.2 GWh of storage capacity....