By Arun Kumar,IANS,
Washington : India and the United States Friday initialled an agreement for setting up a Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre to foster innovation and joint efforts to accelerate deployment of clean energy technologies.
The agreement was initialled by the Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar and US Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman.
The joint research centre was one of the priority initiatives envisaged under an MOU signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s state visit to US last November to enhance cooperation on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change.
The Centre will facilitate joint research and development by teams of scientists and engineers from the US and India on clean energy and related joint activities, needed to deploy clean energy technologies rapidly with the greatest impact.
The areas of cooperation would include energy efficiency of buildings, smart grids, unconventional natural gas, second-generation bio fuels, clean coal technologies and solar energy.
Both governments would provide funding for the activities to help ensure long-term and stable financial support to achieve the objectives of the Centre. Private industry and academia in both countries are also expected to provide additional resources.
This agreement is a significant step forward in strengthening cooperation between the two countries in an area of increasing national and international priority, the Indian embassy here said.
Technology breakthroughs will be critical in achieving energy security in a clean and sustainable manner and the Joint India-US Research Centre could be a valuable catalyst in the process, it said.