Energy transition: Market Demand of Lithium Ion Batteries and its Sustainability in India

Abstract

In COP 21 (2015), 196 countries signed the Paris agreement for boosting clean energy and its transition with battery storage capacity. After that world has witnessed the emerging demand for critical minerals which will be required to make this energy transition possible through their products. When it comes to India, it made the commitment in COP26 held in 2021 to decrease the emissions to zero level by 2070 and for this a climate action strategy is being made. With green technology the other challenges are being associated and one of them is availability of critical minerals in India. In case of Lithium Ion batteries India is largely dependent on imports. With emerging automotive market of electronic vehicles Lithium ion batteries are in huge demand. According to Central Electricity Authority 136 GW is required to add 450 GW renewable energy sources by 2030 in the country, which will make India a large consumer of Li-Ion batteries. Earlier the demand of Lithium ion batteries in India was derived from portable items like mobiles, laptops, headphones and other electronic items. It accounted only 20 percent of LIB demand while 80 percent demand will be from EVs. According to the report of Institute of Energy Economics and Financial analysis estimates that the annual capacity of Lithium ion Batteries for electronic vehicles will hype from 2.36 GW in 2021 to104 GW by 2030. For others like (data centres, telecom towers, and grid-scale renewable energy (RE) integration and rooftop solar (RTS)), it will be hyped from .3 GW to 12 GW. The central Government policy FAME Faster adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & EV backed the latest automotive application which will further hype the demand of Lithium ion batteries by 90 percent.  So with the upsurge demand of Lithium ion batteries, it is challenge as well as an opportunity for India to extract it from recycling and reduce the e-waste burden on India. This paper will study the possibilities to face this challenge and in this light will suggest appropriate measures