The ongoing India Energy Storage Week (IESW) 2025, in New Delhi, had industry leaders and experts exchange ideas and engage in deliberations about the urgent need to explore non-lithium battery technologies, especially with the country’s electric vehicle (EV) market booming.
The session, ‘India needs battery technology beyond Lithium-ion’ was held at the IESW 2025, which is being organised by industry body India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) from July 8-11.
It came to the fore that researchers and experts are actively exploring innovative solutions such as Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB), thermo-mechanical systems, and sodium-ion technologies as substitutes to lithium-ion to ensure grid stability, meet industrial loads, and promote clean mobility.
However, concerns over the limited availability of raw materials for these batteries could create production challenges and potential shortages.
Also Read: India closer to achieving renewable energy goals: Power Min
Currently, lithium-ion is leading the industry due to its high storage capacity and quick charging, noted speakers.
Avishek Kumar, co-founder and CEO of VFlowTech, said that while lithium-ion batteries have reached mass adoption stage, there is a growing need to diversify energy storage solutions such as VRFB, which is a rechargeable energy storage solution that leverages vanadium ions for enhanced longevity.
The global market for VRFB was valued at USD 394.7 million in 2023, and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.7 per cent from 2024 to 2030.
Another viable alternative is the sodium-ion battery, which can be a cost-effective, temperature-resilient substitute that’s ideal for stationary applications, said William Tope, CEO of LiNa Energy.
“As we start to move towards very high penetrations of intermediate renewable generation, the importance of other battery industries and long duration energy storage to load shift at large scale from the off peak period to the peak period is incredibly important,” he said.
Paul Smith, of Energy Dome, said the company’s CO2-based CEAS storage, now entering India through a partnership with NTPC, is a market-ready solution that scales up to 1 GWh.
Zinc-air battery technology is also an alternate solution, claimed Gunjan Kapadia, co-founder and CEO of Sthyr Energy, who claimed the battery offers long-duration storage of 10-24 hours to support deeper discharge cycles.
“As we increase more renewables in the system, we need to have more storage in the system to balance the renewables,” stressed Saurav Mitra, director at Sumitomo SHI FW.
Highlighting innovative storage solutions like thermo-mechanical systems, he further demonstrated Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) as a thermo-mechanical, zero-critical-mineral solution with 80 per cent component sourcing already in India.
“These advancements indicate that India's future in energy storage will be diverse, community-focused, and environmentally sustainable,” he said.
India’s Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, also addressed the topic on Thursday and talked about exploring non-lithium ion energy storage solutions to reduce dependence on imports from certain countries.
“We must work to prevent distortions. We must reduce our dependency on particular geographies and look at alternative sources of supply, where we can have resilience in our supply chain,” he said.
He suggested the industry to focus on research and development for the creation of innovative products and expand manufacturing in areas like critical minerals and semiconductors.
Goyal’s remarks resonate with the country’s auto and electronics sectors which are facing challenges due to restrictions imposed by China on rare earth magnets.
The minister said that all industry stakeholders should join hands to develop charging and battery swapping infrastructure for faster EV adoption.
“There is a remarkable 4,000 per cent increase in our installed solar capacity, our overall renewable energy capacity stands at 227 GW,” he informed the gathering, adding that, “today solar photovoltaic module capacity has increased nearly 38-fold and our solar photovoltaic cell capacity has increased 21-fold”.
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