New Delhi, Oct. 8 -- India's green energy transition is facing headwinds as efforts to support wind and solar power with battery storage falter, driven by aggressive bidding, project unviability, and widespread contract cancellations. Industry experts believe as much as one-third of the projects bid out so far could be unviable.

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) store solar and wind energy when it is produced for use later. To make variable renewable energy more reliable, the government has mandated BESS integration for all future solar and wind tenders.

However, data from the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), an industry body of battery makers, shows a total of 24 gigawatt hour (GWh) BESS projects were cancelled or re-tendered ...