Ather Energy has signed an MoU with the government of Tamil Nadu to set up a two-wheeled electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility. The factory will be spread across 400,000 square feet and will be located at Hosur. Ather Energy also has plans to set up fast-charging infrastructure in Bengaluru and Chennai. The company also has plans to expand its products and services to 30 more cities over the next few years.
The two main themes that dominated the clean energy space in 2019 were energy storage and electric vehicles (EVs). As the government took concrete steps towards establishing these as technologies of the near future, the market responded positively with initiatives that promise lower costs and greater adoption.
As the country plans to meet the ambitious target of integrating 175 GW of renewable energy capacity into the grid by 2022, the existing transmission infrastructure is expected to be heavily overloaded. The variable generation profile of solar and wind power plants can cause major problems in grid operations due to over- or under-injection of power. Various forms of energy storage have emerged as possible solutions to facilitate the grid integration of stored power as and when required.
There is also a lot of focus on EVs and they certainly present an opportunity to reduce the contribution of automotive products to climate change. Manufacturers are looking to move to electric mobility as the government continues to emphasise its importance. Initiatives such as the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme have fast-forwarded the growth of the EV segment over the years. EVs can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution only if the electricity powering these vehicles is generated sustainably. The good news is that just as EVs are becoming commercially viable, renewable energy is already among the cheapest and most reliable sources of power generation. So, as the government creates a policy framework for encouraging the move to EVs, the transition to renewable energy can become an important aspect of that strategy.
Renewable Watch analysed the key developments in these segments over the past one year, the challenges and the outlook in its ninth anniversary issue: