New Delhi (18.04.2024): Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA) has opened an office in GIFT City, Gandhinagar, which will specialize in providing debt options denominated in foreign currencies. This will facilitate natural hedging and significantly reduce the financing costs for Green Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Manufacturing projects. The strategic initiative which would contribute to the country's journey towards a greener future was highlighted by Chairperson & Managing Director of IREDA Pradip Kumar Das, during a panel discussion on “Future Growth Opportunities for Long Duration Energy Storage”, held at the World Future Energy Summit 2024 in Abu Dhabi on April 17, 2024.

The IREDA CMD emphasized the critical role that energy storage will play in achieving the National Green Hydrogen Mission’s ambitious target of over 5 million metric tons per annum (MTPA) Hydrogen production by 2030. He highlighted several key priorities for advancing storage technologies. The CMD stressed the need to enhance research and development efforts to reduce cost and improve performance of energy storage solutions. He spoke of the necessity of implementing policies that strengthen the supply chain network, for achieving the successful deployment of energy storage technologies. Providing competitive and tailored financial solutions will encourage investment in energy storage projects, he added.

India has taken active steps in this direction, which include the formulation of a storage requirement roadmap up to 2047, technology-agnostic storage tenders, and supportive government interventions for battery manufacturing and pumped storage hydropower projects. The Central Electricity Authority of India projects a storage requirement of nearly 400 gigawatt-hours (GWh) by 2030-32, with an estimated investment exceeding Rs 3.5 lakh crore.