Why Distributed Energy Storage Could Become India’s Next Big Cleantech Business Opportunity

The next big cleantech opportunity may not be about generating more electricity. It may be about making every unit of clean electricity more useful.

September 17, 2026. By News Bureau

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articles

Electrent Energy

Chirag Chawla

Distributed Energy Storage

Cleantech Business Opportunity

Central Electricity Authority

BESS

MSME

Natural Storage Market

Manufacturing batteries

India’s clean-energy transition is entering an interesting phase. We are no longer debating whether renewable energy can scale. It clearly can.

The next question is more practical: how do we make that energy available when and where people actually need it?

That is where I believe distributed energy storage could become one of India’s most interesting cleantech opportunities.

As of 31 August 2026, India had 168.04 GW of installed solar capacity, including 32.59 GW of grid-connected rooftop solar. The Central Electricity Authority estimates that India will need 411.4 GWh of energy storage by 2031-32, including 236.22 GWh from battery energy storage systems.

Most conversations around this requirement naturally focus on large utility-scale BESS projects. But there is another market taking shape much closer to the consumer. Batteries in homes. Commercial buildings. Factories. Offices. Telecom sites. MSMEs.

And I think this market could become much bigger than many people currently expect. Not just because India will need millions of batteries, but because an entire ecosystem of businesses can develop around those batteries.

The Battery is Moving Closer to the Consumer

India’s traditional power-backup market was built around a fairly simple proposition. When the grid goes down, the battery provides backup. That model is changing.

A modern storage system can sit alongside rooftop solar, store excess generation, provide backup and help manage when electricity is consumed.

The battery is no longer useful only during a power cut. It can potentially create value every day.

For a household, that could mean storing daytime solar generation for use in the evening.

For an MSME, it could mean protecting critical operations from power interruptions.

For a commercial building, it could combine backup with better energy management.

For a telecom site, reliability may be the primary requirement.

The technology may be similar, but the problem it solves can be very different.

That is what makes distributed storage interesting as a business opportunity.

Rooftop Solar Creates a Natural Storage Market

India’s rooftop solar market is growing rapidly.

PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana is a major driver, with 39.72 lakh rooftop solar systems installed across 48.03 lakh households as of 22 July 2026.

But as more households and businesses generate their own electricity, another question becomes relevant:

What happens to the electricity generated when solar production is high but consumption is low?

Storage is one answer.

The Central Electricity Authority has itself highlighted the role of energy storage in integrating variable renewable energy and has advised the inclusion of co-located storage in future solar tenders.

For the solar industry, this opens up an interesting commercial opportunity.

A solar installation does not have to be a one-time transaction anymore.

An installer can add storage.

A service provider can offer monitoring and maintenance.

A financier can build payment models around the asset.

A software company can optimise how the battery is used.

A manufacturer can offer modular systems that can expand as the customer's requirements change.

The relationship with the customer can therefore continue well beyond the day the solar panels are installed.

MSMEs Could be an Overlooked Opportunity

I think one of the most interesting markets for distributed storage could be India’s MSMEs.

For a small business, electricity is often directly connected to revenue.

A power interruption can stop machinery, affect refrigeration, disrupt digital payments or force a production process to restart.

The cost of that interruption can be much higher than the electricity itself.

That changes the question a customer should ask.

Not just:
“How much does the battery cost?”

But:
“What does unreliable power cost my business?”

We are seeing some of this shift in customer conversations at Electrent.

The questions are increasingly about battery life, usable capacity, charging behaviour, maintenance and space.

That is a useful sign.

It suggests customers are beginning to evaluate storage as an energy asset rather than simply as backup equipment.

The Opportunity is Bigger Than Manufacturing Batteries

The biggest opportunity may not sit with battery manufacturers alone.

Think about what is required around a single distributed storage installation.

There is the battery. Then there is the inverter or power electronics, BMS, installation, financing, remote monitoring, software, maintenance and eventually recycling. Each layer can create a business.

There is another opportunity that could become even more interesting over time: aggregation. Imagine thousands of batteries connected digitally and coordinated as a single flexible resource. Individually, each battery may be small. Collectively, they could become useful to the distribution network. That is where storage starts to intersect with software.

The distributed-storage company of the future may therefore look very different from the battery companies we know today. It could look more like an energy technology platform.

Policy Can Create the Foundation, but the Market has to do the Rest

The government has already recognised that storage needs support as the market develops.

India’s original BESS Viability Gap Funding scheme provided ₹3,760 crore of budgetary support for 4,000 MWh of storage. The government subsequently increased the supported capacity to 13,200 MWh within the same approved allocation. A separate 30 GWh BESS VGF scheme has also been approved.

These measures matter, particularly for building the economics and confidence needed for large-scale storage deployment.

But distributed storage will need something slightly different.

It needs to be simple.

The Next Challenge is Making Storage Easy to Adopt

Good technology alone does not create a mass market. Customers need clear answers on safety, warranty, installation, compatibility and expected life. Businesses need confidence that the system will work with their existing electrical infrastructure. Installers need training. Financiers need confidence in asset performance. Regulators need clear standards. And manufacturers need to stand behind what they sell. This is where the industry still has a lot of work to do.

The conversation also needs to move beyond battery chemistry.

Cell quality matters. So does BMS design. So do thermal management, power electronics, system integration, monitoring and after-sales service.

In distributed storage, the cheapest battery will not necessarily win. The most dependable energy solution will.

From Selling Hardware to Building Energy Infrastructure

The most interesting part of the opportunity is therefore not just the number of batteries India may need.

It is the number of businesses that can be built around them.

Solar companies can become storage providers.

Battery companies can move into energy management.

Financial institutions can create new financing models.

Software companies can optimise distributed assets.

Local service networks can build recurring revenue.

Utilities can eventually interact with distributed storage as a flexible resource.

This is how a product category becomes an ecosystem.

India’s renewable-energy expansion has created a growing need for flexibility. Large-scale storage will address part of that requirement.

But distributed storage can bring flexibility much closer to where electricity is generated and consumed.

That is what makes this opportunity particularly interesting to me.

The next big cleantech opportunity may not be about generating more electricity. It may be about making every unit of clean electricity more useful.

And distributed energy storage could be one of the technologies that turns that opportunity into a new Indian industry.

- Chirag Chawla, Founder & CEO, Electrent Energy