India and US to increase co-operation in renewable energy

India and the US have agreed to increase cooperation in the field of renewable energy. US energy department secretary Steven Chu met India's minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah in New Delhi and discussed various areas of cooperation in the field of renewable energy.
The two sides have agreed to take forward joint research and deployment of distributed generation with focus on storage.

Given the large potential in India in solar energy and the ambitious solar development plan being set out by the government, it was decided that the two sides would collaborate both in encouraging investment and R & D efforts. Other areas of cooperation include biomass gassifier technology, which offers enormous potential to meet the energy requirement in rural areas.
The two sides also agreed to step up their R & D collaboration to develop small-size biomass gassifier, which can be available for rapid deployment to meet the power meet in rural areas both to India and the US.

The US energy secretary also met union minister of power Sushilkumar Shinde and the two agreed on joint development of new technologies in the field of energy of mutual interest. Amongst the areas identified for cooperation are: clean coal technologies, smart grids and energy efficiency. They also discussed ways of accelerating the adoption of clean and efficient coal energy technology in India, in view of the large-scale growth in infrastructure in India over the next few decades.
The two sides also discussed the possibilities that could be exploited through the availability of cheap storage solutions such as batteries and pump hydro. These could enable decentralised stand-alone grids, based on local resources.

Technologies for energy from municipal waste were also identified as an area for mutual benefit.
The two sides would also work towards the creation of a joint mechanism to promote research and the development of clean and efficient technologies, an official release said.