In the renewable energy sector, the year 2025 was one of continuous records.

After solar installed capacity and module manufacturing capacity crossed 100 GW each, wind swept past 50 GW, RE capacity exceeded 200 GW, and power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel grew more than 250 GW and accounted for more than half of the country’s electricity generation capacity, here is yet another record: energy storage system (ESS) capacity tendered exceeded 100 GWhr, according to the latest data provided by the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA).

Indeed, it was the spurt in battery energy storage systems (BESS) that powered the rapid growth in solar and wind installations.

IESA, in its recently released ‘India Energy Storage Report 2025’, says that 102 GWhr of ESS capacity was tendered in 2025, which was 1.5 times the cumulative capacity until 2024. BESS, a subset of ESS, was the biggest driver, accounting for 60 GWhr of tenders, compared with 24 GWhr in 2024 and 4 GWhr in 2023.

“As of December 2025, 224 GWh of ESS capacity tenders has been shared, of which 95 GWh is in various stages of execution and 80 GWh is in tendering process with 47 GWh tenders cancelled,” the report says.

The report lists the policy measures brought in during what it describes as a “trailblazing year”. It notes that after tasting success with the first tranche of viability gap funding (VGF) for 13.2 GWhr, the Ministry of Power came out with a second tranche, for 30 GWhr, with VGF of ₹5,400 crore.

The year will also be remembered for two landmark events pertaining to BESS — the commissioning of the country’s first MWhr-scale (3 MWhr) vanadium redox battery (VRB), by NTPC, in November; and the first merchant BESS project of 60 MWhr capacity, by Juniper Green Energy, in December.

The IESA report also notes that 50 new players entered the “BESS arena” as developers in 2025.

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Published on January 5, 2026