How Renewable Energy and Long-Duration Storage Are Changing the Energy Market

Across India and the wider Asia Pacific region, renewable energy is moving from the margins to the centre of the power system. India has crossed 500 GW of total installed power capacity and is tracking towards 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 and 50% of electricity from clean sources, with most new additions coming from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

Globally, the story is similar. By the end of 2024, the world had around 4,448 GW of renewable energy capacity installed, after a record 585 GW was added in just one year, accounting for over 90% of all new power capacity. As more renewable energy systems connect to the grid, the challenge of intermittency becomes harder to ignore.

In India, this is already leading to curtailment. Solar power output is sometimes reduced to keep the grid stable amid low demand and congestion, and in Tamil Nadu, tens of millions of units of renewable energy have been wasted in a single wind-intensive week because they could not be evacuated. Short-duration lithium-ion batteries help, but with only two to four hours of storage, they cannot fully solve multi-day variability. To truly unlock high shares of renewable energy, we need long-duration energy storage (LDES) that can shift power over many hours or days. Iron-air batteries are one of the most promising LDES options, using reversible “rusting” of iron to store energy at and enable round-the-clock power at much lower costs than lithium-ion.

MEINE Electric sits at this intersection. As APAC’s first iron-air LDES innovator, it is building low-cost, multi-day storage that allows renewable energy systems in India and APAC to behave like reliable, round-the-clock power. Before we dive into the technology, it helps to understand what renewable energy is, the scale of growth in India and APAC, and why long-duration energy storage is becoming central to energy markets.

The Renewable Energy Landscape and Storage Challenges in India and APAC

India’s fast-growing renewable energy story

If we start with What is renewable energy, the simplest definition is that it comes from natural flows that replenish at human time scales, such as sun, wind, water and biomass. That set of renewable energy sources is growing rapidly across India.

India has set a target of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 and aims to meet 50% of its electricity requirement from clean sources. By late 2024, total renewable energy capacity crossed 200 GW, and by 2025, more than 51% of installed capacity was already from non-fossil fuel sources.

Recent government statements confirm that India is “on track” to meet the 500 GW goal, with around 220.10 GW of non-fossil capacity already installed and bids out for roughly 169 GW of projects. A large part of this new build is solar and wind, the most scalable types of renewable energy for power generation today.

At the same time, India’s energy storage market is scaling hard to keep up. IMARC estimates that India’s energy storage market reached about 233.78 MWh in 2024 and is projected to grow to 6,637.31 MWh by 2033, at a CAGR of 41.7% between 2025 and 2033. This rapid growth reflects how crucial storage has become to integrate renewable energy systems into the grid.

APAC as the growth engine for renewables

The Asia Pacific region is now one of the most dynamic hubs for renewable energy globally. IEA analysis shows that global renewable capacity is set to grow strongly, driven heavily by solar PV, with Asia Pacific outside China expected to almost double its renewable capacity in the next five years.

Global renewable energy capacity reached about 4,448 GW in 2024, after a record addition of 585 GW in a single year, representing over 90% of new capacity. A large share of this growth comes from APAC, where countries are combining ambitious climate targets with accelerating demand for electricity.

As types of renewable energy like solar and wind dominate new capacity, the region’s power systems are seeing familiar patterns: mid-day price crashes when solar is abundant, and steep ramps in the evening when demand peaks but solar fades. These patterns create strong value for storage that can shift energy over longer durations.

Intermittency, curtailment and the storage gap

The intermittency of renewable energy sources is no longer a theoretical concern. It is already showing up as lost revenue and wasted clean power.

In India, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has confirmed that solar output is being deliberately reduced during periods of low demand to maintain grid stability and manage congestion in transmission lines. Solar developers in Rajasthan report curtailment reaching up to 48% of output during peak generation hours and revenue losses exceeding 26 million dollars since April 2025.

In Tamil Nadu, grid curtailment has resulted in about 70 million units of renewable energy not being evacuated in just one week during the wind season, with 8 to 10 million units going to waste every day. This is energy that could have displaced fossil generation or served industrial loads if there were cost-effective storage in place.

These examples highlight a key limitation of short-duration batteries that typically store power for only two to four hours. They can smooth short peaks, but they struggle to handle multi-day monsoon cloud cover, extended wind lulls or seasonal shifts in renewable energy systems.

Market potential for LDES

Globally, the market for long-duration energy storage is moving from concept to deployment. Global Market Insights estimates that the long-duration energy storage market was valued at about 3.1 billion dollars in 2024 and is expected to grow to 8.7 billion dollars by 2034, at a CAGR of 10.6%.

Fortune Business Insights reports a similar picture, with the LDES market worth about 3.14 billion dollars in 2024 and projected to reach 4.44 billion dollars by 2032.

Zooming out to the broader energy storage space, BloombergNEF forecasts cumulative energy storage (excluding pumped hydro) of about 942 GW and 2,857 GWh by 2040, attracting around 620 billion dollars in investment. With renewable energy capacity forecast to grow 2.7 times by 2030 globally, LDES is expected to capture a rising share of this spend as grids try to cut reliance on fossil backup while maintaining reliability.

In APAC, where renewable energy systems face monsoon-related variability, seasonal demand swings and grid congestion, the opportunity for long-duration energy storage is particularly strong. MEINE Electric’s own analysis, referencing LDES Council and BNEF work, points to APAC claiming a significant share of global LDES capacity by 2040.

Long-Duration Energy Storage: Enabling Reliable Renewables Integration

What is long-duration energy storage, and why does it matter

Long-duration energy storage generally refers to technologies that can discharge for ten hours or more at rated power. In contrast, most lithium-ion projects in today’s markets are designed around two to four hours.

This longer duration allows LDES to do things that short-duration batteries cannot, such as:

Shifting large volumes of solar generation from afternoons to late evenings and early mornings.

Covering multi-day gaps in renewable energy output during poor weather.

Providing firm capacity that can substitute for peaker plants and reduce reliance on coal and gas.

Government agencies and research bodies increasingly highlight that grids with high shares of renewable energy will need both short-duration and long-duration storage to remain reliable. The US Department of Energy, for example, defines LDES systems as those capable of delivering firm power for more than ten hours and has launched dedicated programmes like the Long Duration Storage Shot to reduce costs and accelerate deployment.

Market trends for LDES in India and APAC

Several trends make long-duration energy storage particularly relevant to India and APAC:

The rapid growth of renewable energy sources and ambitious targets requires flexible backup. India’s 500 GW non-fossil target and APAC’s nearly doubling of renewable capacity in the next five years both imply much higher variability in supply.

Increasing curtailment and grid congestion, as seen in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, which points to the need for storage solutions that can absorb excess renewable energy over longer time windows.

Strong policy momentum around storage. India has issued several utility-scale storage tenders and is providing viability gap funding for 30 GWh of battery energy storage capacity, explicitly to support renewable integration.

Global cost declines. Studies tied to the LDES Council indicate that costs for electrochemical and mechanical LDES technologies could fall significantly by 2030, with the potential to become competitive with gas peaker plants when used at scale.

Key applications of LDES

For decision makers in India and APAC, long-duration energy storage is not just a technology topic. It is a portfolio tool that unlocks new business models and system designs.

Some of the most important applications include:

Peak load management: storing midday solar and discharging across the evening peak so that renewable energy systems can meet demand without expensive peaking plants.

Grid balancing: providing multi-hour frequency and voltage support during periods when renewable energy sources ramp up or down quickly.

Fossil fuel replacement: enabling utilities and industries to retire older coal assets while maintaining reliability by pairing wind or solar with LDES instead of new fossil capacity.

In practice, this means that LDES is becoming a central piece in the answer to “How do we go from intermittent renewable energy to firm, dispatchable clean power across India and APAC?”

Iron-Air Batteries: Innovative Storage Technology with High Potential

How metal-air and iron-air batteries work

Metal-air batteries store energy using a metal such as zinc, aluminium, magnesium or iron and oxygen from the air. During discharge, the metal reacts with oxygen to form an oxide or hydroxide and release electrons; charging reverses this reaction. Research from institutions like IIT Bombay notes that many metal-air chemistries are hard to recharge efficiently and can suffer from poor cycle life, which has limited the commercial, rechargeable systems.

Iron-air batteries address these challenges using “reversible rusting”. , During discharge, iron metal “rusts” as it reacts with oxygen, and during charging, the rust is converted back to iron, storing energy again. This simple chemistry, using iron, air and a water-based electrolyte, aligns well with the safety and sustainability expectations of modern renewable energy systems.

Why iron-air stands out among LDES technologies

Among emerging types of renewable energy storage technologies, iron-air batteries offer a rare combination of low cost, long duration and scalable materials. Form Energy, a tech pioneer to take Iron-Air development to MW scale, reports that its iron-air systems can store energy at less than one-tenth the cost of lithium-ion batteries, which is critical for multi-day long-duration energy storage. PBS coverage notes target durations of up to 100 hours, with pilots designed to power hundreds of homes for four days.

Iron is one of the world’s most widely produced, low-cost materials and air is freely available, helping avoid supply chain constraints seen in other chemistries. The water-based electrolyte and lack of flammable solvents also reduce fire risk, supporting safe deployment near communities and critical infrastructure.

In Europe, TU Delft spin-off Ore Energy is developing iron-air “rust batteries” that can provide power for up to 100 hours, has already connected a first unit to the grid and is planning a dedicated factory to scale production.

Taken together, these projects show iron-air emerging as one of the most promising electrochemical routes to long-duration energy storage for grids built on high shares of renewable energy sources.

Building APAC’s First Iron-Air LDES for a 24x7 Renewable Future

MEINE Electric is building APAC’s first iron-air long-duration energy storage systems, designed for the real grid conditions of India and the wider region. Our iron-air batteries deliver up to 24 hours of affordable storage, turning intermittent renewable energy into firm, round-the-clock power for utilities and industry.

Built for India and APAC, the technology targets a low gross levelised cost of storage of roughly 3 cents per kWh for long-duration use, while relying on abundant materials like iron, water and air instead of scarce metals. Engineered for daily cycling, it complements lithium-ion rather than competing with it, helping “complete the stack” from fast, short-duration response to multi-hour and even multi-day storage.

In under a year of focusing on Iron-Air development, MEINE Electric moved from sub-watt cells to a module level and targets to develop modular 40 kW Iron-Air skids that can be combined into multi-megawatt or even multi-gigawatt-hour plants. Placed alongside solar and wind farms, these systems cut curtailment, improve project returns and support a future where renewable energy in India and APAC can reliably run 24x7.

To learn more about how MEINE Electric’s iron-air technology can support your projects in India and APAC, visit us at meineelectric.com.