To enhance cooperation in clean energy space, India and the US have decided to establish a working group to discuss financing options for encouraging generation of power through renewable sources.
The decision was taken here on Friday at the day-long India-US Energy Dialogue, which was co-chaired by Planning Commission Member B.K. Chaturvedi and the US Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
The two countries also agreed to establish another working group on ‘low carbon growth’ for assessing the carbon dioxide emissions from different industries and for initiating steps to reduce such emissions.
Indian foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai, deputy energy secretary Daniel Poneman and the Acting Under secretary of energy David Sandalow, were among top officials to participate in the energy dialogue.
The two sides, according to a statement issued by the Indian Embassy, lauded successful implementation of the decision by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama in November 2010 to establish a “virtual” Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERD).
This is the first bilateral initiative designed specifically to promote clean energy initiative by team of scientists from India and the US, with a total joint committed funding from both governments of $ 50 million.
According to the statement, the India-US Energy Dialogue noted enormous trade and investment opportunities, which have been opened up with discovery of US shale gas While noting the investments made in this sector by Indian companies and the permission granted to Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) for export of LNG from Sabine Pass terminal in US to India, the Dialogue discussed the impact of relatively less expensive LNG imports from US to India, on the Indian power sector and prospects of growth in India.
It stressed on the need for both countries to actively enhance generation of energy from renewable and low carbon resources, and in this context, the possibilities of large scale cooperation in integration of renewables with the grid, storage technologies, and RE technologies was discussed.
The Dialogue also discussed utilisation of carbon dioxide, released through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in alternative uses, such as fertiliser manufacture, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and other such methodologies in order to make CCS commercially viable.
It was decided that the two sides would engage in further cooperation
in this area.