Storage Targets Nearly Triple Since COP29 as China Grid-Connects a 1 GWh CO2 Battery and Rajasthan's 20 GW Power Corridor Goes Live

The week in 120 words

Governments have written down 822 GW of 2030 energy storage targets, almost three times the level at COP29, according to Ember. That is still 45% short of the 1,500 GW pledge, but the direction is set, and the hardware is arriving. China's Huadian connected a 100 MW / 1,000 MWh compressed CO2 plant in Xinjiang on 30 September, one of the largest long-duration storage units anywhere. Germany broke ground on a 840 MWh battery and cleared two more, 3.2 GWh in all. India's POWERGRID put a Rajasthan renewable evacuation scheme into service, and the first CO2 battery dome for NTPC has shipped from Italy. Electric cars have displaced about 200 million barrels of crude since March, Ember estimates.

Part 1: India

Rajasthan's evacuation scheme enters service

POWERGRID told the exchanges that its Rajasthan renewable energy transmission project under Phase III Part C1 began commercial operation on 22 September 2026. The company received the formal notice on 11 October, and trade press reported it on 12 October. One trade outlet describes it as 20 GW of evacuation capacity. The coverage we could see gives no cost and no voltage, so treat the 20 GW as a single-outlet figure until the filing is read in full.

It matters because lines, not panels, have been the binding constraint this year. India had 168 GW of installed solar in August 2026 (CREA), so 20 GW of evacuation is equal to about 12% of that fleet. Transmission is built by regulated tariff, so the cost lands on consumers across the country. The strongest objection is that corridors are built ahead of generation that may arrive late.

Three cell-line approvals in eleven days

MNRE issued three revisions to the ALMM List-II, the list of approved solar cell makers, between 28 September and 8 October. Jupiter Solartech's Baddi plant was added at 1,297 MW a year of N-type TOPCon cells. Premier Energies' Telangana line was expanded by 1,280 MW a year. Gopin Semicon of Surat was added at 402 MW a year, with 25.57% average cell efficiency on its approved model. Together that is about 3 GW of annual cell capacity. Enlisted cell capacity now stands near 37.8 GW a year, according to trade coverage of the MNRE memoranda. A listing is a permission to supply government-backed projects, not a production figure.

Vikram Solar announces a 7.5 GWh battery assembly plant

This is an announcement. VSL PowerHive, a Vikram Solar subsidiary, plans a 7.5 GWh lithium iron phosphate storage assembly plant at Oragadam near Chennai. Inauguration is scheduled for January 2027 and commercial operation for April 2027. It is the first step of a 30 GWh manufacturing plan for 2030. The company has not disclosed the investment. Assembly of packs and systems is a lower-value step than cell making, so the real test is whether cell supply is contracted.

The first CO2 battery for NTPC has shipped

Energy Dome opened its Piacenza factory on 8 October. The first dome built there has gone to the 160 MWh project with NTPC at Kudgi. The same factory will supply a 200 MWh plant in Wisconsin with Alliant Energy and a 200 MWh plant in Ireland tied to Google. The company reports more than 2 GWh operating or contracted and a pipeline above 30 GWh, which are its own figures. A dome in a crate is not yet a plant. The Indian project has to be erected, commissioned and run before it counts as evidence that the technology works at this price.

Wind projects near defence sites get a standard file

An MNRE memorandum dated 1 October fixes the paperwork for wind clearance near defence aerodromes. Developers submit one soft copy with a standard spreadsheet, three physical map sets per aerodrome, and the full hard-copy package within seven days. Incomplete applications can be returned. The point is to stop files bouncing between ministries. The cost is a hard seven-day deadline that small developers will find tight.

Number of the week: 705 GWh

Solar produced a record 705 million units (705 GWh) in India on 30 September 2026, according to CREA's quarterly snapshot. The source does not state the previous record, so we cannot say what it displaced. For scale, coal and lignite generated 351 billion units in the same quarter, about 3,800 GWh a day on average (our arithmetic). The record is therefore equal to roughly 18% of an average coal day. Solar output grew 39% year on year in the quarter, the fastest of any major source.

Part 2: The World

Storage targets triple, and China sets the pace

Ember summed the 2030 storage targets of 99 countries and the EU and got 822 GW, up 190% since COP29. The COP29 pledge was 1,500 GW. China raised its own 2030 target from 130 GW to 460 GW in its 15th Five-Year Plan. The EU agreed its first bloc target, 200 GW, in June. China and the EU hold more than 80% of the total. BNEF expects about 1,200 GW of batteries by 2030, which would close much of the gap. Targets are not installations. Global additions reached a record 118 GW in 2025.

China connects a 1 GWh CO2 battery in the Gobi

China Huadian connected a 100 MW / 1,000 MWh compressed CO2 plant in Mulei County, Xinjiang on 30 September, with a 10-hour discharge. It sits within a project that includes 600 MW of wind and 400 MW of solar. The technology came from Xi'an Jiaotong University and Dongfang Electric was the EPC contractor. The company expects about 200 GWh a year. Treat all of this as company claims. The 92% efficiency quoted is a turbine design figure, and round-trip efficiency and cost have not been disclosed.

Germany moves 3.2 GWh of four-hour batteries

Three projects advanced. Enlight and Enertrag broke ground on 13 October on a 200 MW / 840 MWh site in Brandenburg, due in the first half of 2028, with part of the output sold to EDF Trading for seven years. Vattenfall signed with Fluence for a battery of at least 1,000 MWh at Brunsbüttel, built on a former nuclear plant site. Giga Storage's 350 MW / 1,400 MWh Albatross project is ready to build. The deadline matters: projects need a final investment decision by 1 January 2027 to win a 20-year exemption from grid charging fees. None of the three has reported financing.

A Massachusetts battery closes roughly $850 million of financing

Flatiron Energy closed about $850 million for the 1,200 MWh Energizar project in Chelsea, Massachusetts, reported on 16 October. A financing close is the step announcements usually lack. The reported amount is a single-source figure from trade press. The US offers a counterpoint: Ember notes the country has about 52 GW of utility batteries but no 2030 national storage target.

Australia's homes install 8.7 GWh of batteries in six months

The Clean Energy Council reports 276,011 home batteries in the first half of 2026, up 52% on the prior six months, adding 8,691 MWh. There were 153 batteries for every 100 rooftop solar installs. The driver is a 30% upfront subsidy from a A$7.2 billion federal program that started in July 2025. The subsidy is paid by taxpayers, and critics will ask whether it favours households that already own solar.

Electric cars cut oil bills in importing countries

Ember estimates electric cars displaced about 200 million barrels of crude between March and August 2026, saving oil importers about $20 billion since the Hormuz crisis began. China accounts for $14 billion of that and EU states $3.1 billion. Battery EVs were 18% of new car sales globally in the first eight months. The less-reported part: India has had a higher battery EV share than the US every month since April, and 15 countries, including Brazil and Malaysia, overtook the US this year. Separately, one Pakistani outlet reports about 7.2 GW of Chinese panels imported in January to July 2026, citing unnamed reports we could not check. That compares with 7.6 GW in all of 2023.

The hard part

India: clean power is being wasted while coal stocks run thin. CREA's snapshot shows 1,462 million units of solar and 373 million units of wind curtailed in July and August, about 4% of solar output according to Reuters. Over the same quarter coal and lignite supplied about 66% of generation and plant coal stocks fell to 21 million tonnes on 30 September, 36% of the 58 million tonne norm. On 1 October, 85 plants held under 25% of their normative stock. Solar's capacity utilisation slipped to 18.3%. The reason is that generation is arriving faster than grid and storage. For this to turn, evacuation lines such as the Rajasthan scheme must be commissioned on time, state utilities need storage contracts that are actually signed, and curtailment compensation rules need to push developers and grid operators to fix bottlenecks.

World: China's EV demand dipped, and eight big solar countries still have no storage target. China's new energy vehicle sales fell 12% in September to 1.1 million, CPCA data cited by Bloomberg shows, though they were still 67.1% of passenger-car retail. Beijing will cut the export VAT rebate on these vehicles from 13% to 9% from next April. A cheaper export push is being made less cheap. Separately, Ember finds eight of the top 20 solar countries, including the US, Germany and Saudi Arabia, have no 2030 storage target. Turning this around needs domestic demand support in China that does not depend on exports, and storage targets in those eight countries before their midday solar surpluses grow.

Worth watching

• COP31 in Türkiye, November 2026: The presidency has proposed a 35-by-35 pledge to lift electricity to 35% of final energy demand by 2035. Check whether storage and grid pledges are tied to numbers.

• Further ALMM List-II revisions, ongoing through November: MNRE has issued three in eleven days. Watch whether the 37.8 GW cell total keeps rising.

• Germany's 1 January 2027 deadline: Final investment decisions for Brunsbüttel and Albatross are needed to win the grid-fee exemption. Watch for FID announcements in the window up to December.

• Kudgi 160 MWh CO2 battery, erection and commissioning: The dome has shipped. A commissioning date has not been announced.

• Vikram Solar's Oragadam plant, inauguration January 2027: Beyond the eight-week window, but a delay will show up in contracts first.