Green warriors

China might be way ahead in the green energy gold rush, but a clutch of big-dreaming innovators could well be India’s ace in the hole

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

Deep tech and new age energy are not epithets that flash in your mind while entering the Log9 headquarters near the Jakkur Aerodrome in northern Bengaluru. The whitewashed building is airy and filled with potted greens, with retrievers waddling around in the designated kennel area in the garden outside. An al fresco buffet dishes out hot meals on the rooftop, while geeks in tee-and-jean ‘uniforms’—the average age seems to be firmly on the right side of 30—roam about between foosball tables and smart meeting rooms.

But make no mistake, this understated campus is virtually the epicentre of India’s desperate thrust in a new global gold rush—a scramble for sustainable energy using clean sources and technology. Earlier this summer, Log9 turned heads and made headlines by making India’s first lithium-ion cells. Former ISRO chief K. Sivan gushed: “I want to see Log9 become another ISRO.” Log9 is barely eight years old, but already valued at ₹2,000 crore.

The reason for this palpable excitement is all in the requirements of the new energy mix. Just like black gold, aka oil, clean energy sources like solar and wind depend on ‘white gold’ or ‘green gold’— minerals and metals like copper, cobalt, zinc, silver and, especially, lithium. These are the raw materials that go into making batteries that power electric vehicles and other clean technologies.

The issue? Some of them, like lithium, are only available in a few parts of the world, where a veritable geopolitical gold rush has begun for control of these assets. Just like nations going to war for oil in the past, there is now a cold war over these resources.