There are plans in the offing to announce the mounting of a National Mission on advanced ultra supercritical technologies for cleaner coal utilisation at a total cost of US$ 238 million and setting up of two Centres of Excellence on Clean Coal Technologies at US $5 million each.
In its quest for cleaner fuels, a National Mission on methanol and di-methyl ether is being mounted. A new centre on solar photovoltaic, thermal storage and solar fuels research has also been approved at an approx of US$ 5 million. Funding opportunities have been announced in the area of energy storage, clean coal, waste water treatment amounting to US$ 10 million. This announcement was made at the 2nd Mission Innovation Ministerial and 8th Clean Energy Ministerial at Beijing, China.
India also announced two MI-centric Funding Opportunities in Smart Grid and Offgrid Access at US$ 5 million each. Joint virtual Clean Energy Centre with UK and Indian Government funding of UK£ 5 million each has been initiated. Under the Indo – US Joint Clean Energy Research (PACE – R) the new collaborative public – private programme on Smart Grids & Energy Storage has been approved. India has also embarked upon a joint programme on renewable energy with Norway.
Energy Ministers from 23 Nations with 80% of Clean Energy Investments and 75% of GHG Emission met on June 6-8, 2017 at Beijing, China to focus on Advancing Clean Energy Cooperation and Implementing Paris Agreement Commitments.
The Indian delegation was led by Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Science and Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Dr. Harshvardhan.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also participated along with 4 other Ministers in a roundtable on accelerating innovation via public-private synergies – “Getting to the Future Faster: Accelerating Innovation in Clean Energy Technology through Public and Private Collaboration”, which considered the roles of the private and public sectors in the innovation ecosystem, synergies between the two and successful models for feeding the innovation pipeline and accelerating outcomes.
The Minister held a successful bilateral meeting with US Secretary Rick Perry. Joint collaboration in clean energy was discussed to widen new areas of research cooperation in clean coal, carbon capture and accessible and affordable water. These areas will be in addition to strengthening ongoing partnerships under PACE-R. A new partnership in india-US clean energy was also discussed.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also led bilateral meeting with Maros Sefcovic, Vice President for European Union, European Commission. Successful ongoing collaborations were discussed on water technology, research& innovation, clean biofuels solar energy etc). New partnership in clean technologies such as smart grids, water and waste water treatment were also discussed.
