MNS:- The first ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on cooperation in Renewable Energy was held in the capital today. Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy while inaugurating the meeting said that this meeting is a unique opportunity to catalize the India-ASEAN Renewable Energy family. He underlined the importance of Renewable Energy in India’s energy security, for achieving its goal of providing reliable energy supply and access through a diverse and sustainable energy mix. He stated that ASEAN member countries and India have several commonalities in their quest for targeting renewable energy. Globally, renewable energy has started making a positive impact on energy supply. The Global Renewable Energy Status Report 2012 reveals that renewable energy has grown to supply 16.7 per cent of the global energy consumption.
Dr. Farooq Abdullah stated that today India stands among the top five countries of the world in terms of renewable energy installed capacity and at present renewable power, with over 26 GW installed capacity, represents about 12.5 percent of the total installed power generation capacity in India. He further said that India aims to achieve about 55 GW of renewable power by 2017. Our renewable energy programme is primarily private sector driven and offers significant investment and business opportunities, he added. The Minister informed that the investment in renewable energy in India has now exceeded US $ 10 billion per year.
This meeting is a beginning to explore new horizons, new pathways to cooperation and new solutions to existing challenges. It aims to foster greater dialogue, greater sharing and increased interactions at institutional as well as industry levels among ASEAN countries and India. Dr. Abdullah, envisioned that every citizen of ASEAN-India region should have access to clean, reliable and affordable energy.
It may be recalled that ASEAN-India partnership has completed 20 years of existance. To celebrate this successful partnership, the Government of India hosted this meeting of the Ministers of Renewable Energy of ASEAN countries and India. The meeting deliberated and discussed the policy and regulatory framework for promotion of renewable energy in ASEAN member countries and India. The issues of financing of renewable energy, cooperation in research and development, technology transfer were some of the issues that came up for discussion.
The meeting was attended by H.E. Shri Pehin Dato Mohammad Yasmin Umar, Minister of Energy, Brunei Darussalam, H.E Shri Dato’ Sri Peter Chin Fah Kui, Minister of Energy, Green Technology & Water, Malaysia and H.E. Mr. Tran Quoc Khanh, Wice Minister of MOIT, Vietnam. The other delegations were headed by respective Ambassadors and High Commissioners. The Ministers of ASEAN member countries presented the present status of renewable energy utilization in their respective countries and all of them reiterated the need for augmenting renewable energy applications in view of ensuing needs and also to curb emission of Green House Gases. Many ASEAN countries sought cooperation in Solar, Wind, Biomass, Small Hydro Technologies including capacity building from India. At the end, the Chairman’s Statement on joint cooperation for renewable energy applications was adopted by the Ministers and Heads of Delegations of ASEAN country and India.
Prior to this meeting, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), organized an ‘ASEAN-India Workshop on Cooperation in Renewable Energy’ of experts and policy planners from ASEAN countries and India on 5-6 November 2012 at Vigyan Bhavan New Delhi. The workshop aimed at sharing of experience among participating countries on development and deployment of renewable energy and to identify the institutions for establishing long term cooperation between institutions in India and ASEAN countries. The workshop was attended by 17 participants from 8 ASEAN member countries with over 170 delegates from all over India and from different streams of renewable energy. Over 30 experts made their presentations on the subjects of Wind, Solar photovoltaic, Solar thermal, Bio-energy, Renewable Energy Resource Assessment Techniques, Off-grid Applications and Micro-grid for Rural Electrification. The major areas of cooperation that emerged in the workshop included Experience sharing in Renewable Energy Resource Assessment using GIS and remote sensing technologies, Sharing of Renewable Energy equipment calibration and testing facilities, protocol and evaluation methods, standards and certification procedures, off-shore power supply and transmission technology utilizing wind and ocean technologies, regional network on R&D on Renewable Energy Technology facilitating sharing of best practices and lessons learnt, exchange of ideas for providing energy access to rural population through promotion of micro-grids/off-grids based on renewable technologies and sharing of experience in financing of renewable energy projects.
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