Amazon Seals Asia Pacific Battery Storage Deal as India Hyperscalers Bypass Gas
Wood Mackenzie found no major hyperscaler in India has locked in gas-backed power supply, while renewable PPAs in the country have surpassed 33GW of agreed capacity.
No hyperscaler operating in India has confirmed a gas-backed power supply agreement, Wood Mackenzie reported on Tuesday (2026-09-08), as AI-driven workloads are projected to triple data centres' share of the country's total electricity consumption to 6% by 2030. India's renewable power purchase agreement market has already exceeded 33GW of agreed capacity. The data underline a supply challenge emerging across Asia Pacific as data centre growth accelerates faster than clean power infrastructure.7
The cost arithmetic explains the gas absence. LNG-to-power generation runs two to three times more expensive than a system pairing renewables with battery storage in India, where gas supplies less than 2% of total electricity generation, the edie.net analysis published Tuesday (2026-09-08) found, drawing on Wood Mackenzie research. India's data centre capacity is forecast to expand approximately fivefold to 12GW by 2035, making it the second-largest market in Asia Pacific. By 2060, Wood Mackenzie projects data centres could account for 17% of India's total power consumption.7
Those projections are already pulling storage investment across the region. Amazon sealed a tolling agreement with clean energy platform Anza on Tuesday (2026-09-01) for a 50 MW / 200 MWh standalone battery energy storage system in Victoria, Australia, which Anza described as the first Asia Pacific battery deal of its kind. The Victoria contract is Anza's seventh energy agreement since the platform launched in January 2026.6
Australia is absorbing a broader wave of battery capital alongside it. Vena Energy secured AU$1.4 billion ($961.54m) in green financing in a deal reported June 30 (2026-06-30), covering more than 600 megawatts peak of solar projects alongside nearly 1.8 GWh of battery storage, Asian Power reported.4
Construction has started on some of the country's larger hybrids. The Lower Wonga project near Gympie in Queensland pairs 380 MWdc of solar with 281 MW and 843 MWh of battery capacity, one of the largest solar-battery hybrids in Australia. Edify Energy is building Smoky Creek and Guthrie's Gap, rated together at 600 MW and 2,400 MWh, with a remit to power large industrial energy users. Rio Tinto, which is spending $7.2 billion transitioning its Gladstone facilities from coal to green power, has agreed to take 40% of Lower Wonga's output.1
Lightsource bp is also building one of Australia's first long-duration DC-coupled battery systems: a 49 MW / 562 MWh unit integrated with the 585 MWdc Goulburn River solar farm near Merriwa in New South Wales. Solar delivers low-cost electricity and storage shifts it to peak demand periods, improving grid flexibility at no additional fuel cost.1
Across Asia, investment appetite for battery systems runs well ahead of what is actually being deployed. A DLA Piper survey found China ranked third among the most attractive markets for battery energy storage investment, with 14% of respondents choosing it, behind the US at 25% and the UK at 19%. Execution risks and regulatory uncertainty remain the principal drag on deployment across the region, the report found.3
Regulators are beginning to push back on passive grid access. More than 32GW of planned data centre capacity spread across more than 1,150 projects is reshaping how Asia-Pacific power grids accommodate large electricity users, with authorities now requiring reliability, flexibility and clean energy procurement commitments from developers as a condition of connection, according to a Wood Mackenzie report from June 15 (2026-06-15). Data centre operators in multiple markets must now offer grid services support to secure power access.5,2
Wood Mackenzie's Tuesday (2026-09-08) analysis adds a longer-term dimension: as renewable generation expands, data centres can absorb curtailed output in oversupply periods, shifting from passive load to active participants in grid balancing. If that model scales, India's 33GW renewable PPA pipeline could add storage and flexibility with each new facility, not just additional demand.7
The immediate test is delivery. India's government targets non-fossil fuel sources at 50% of total power generation by 2030, implying rapid solar, wind and storage build within four years. Wood Mackenzie expects data centre emissions in India to peak by 2035. Whether project pipelines clear land acquisition, permitting and grid connection hurdles at that pace is the core execution risk — the Amazon-Anza deal in Victoria is one data point, but Victoria is not India.7,6