BWI: Scotland and India Make Pledge on Clean Energy

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Scottish Development International
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 03:11 PM IST (09:41 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Environment; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Energy companies, Heavy industries; Technology
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Scotland and India Make Pledge on Clean Energy
Pioneering Agreement will Drive Innovation in Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Technologies

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 -- (Business Wire India) -- A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between the Governments of India and Scotland to drive innovation in renewable energy and support both governments' goals to increase supplies of wind energy, solar power and biofuels.

The agreement was signed by Mr Deepak Gupta, Secretary to the Government of India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and Michael Russell, the Scottish Government's Minister for External Affairs.

The MoU, which was facilitated by Scotland's international economic development agency Scottish Development International (SDI), highlights both countries' commitment to jointly developing new renewables technology and encouraging innovation throughout their low carbon energy sectors.

The agreement will boost collaboration between Indian and Scottish Universities and Research institutes and will leverage Scotland's world class energy research, development and deployment expertise.

India represents a large market in which Scottish renewables expertise and technology can be applied and which is attracting significant interest from Scottish companies. Sgurr Energy, the Scottish specialist renewable energy company, has already opened an office in Pune.

The Scottish Government has ambitions to become the green energy capital of Europe and has a target for 50 per cent electricity demand to come from renewables by 2020. As a result, the sector in Scotland is dynamic in terms of innovation, development and diversification - critical elements for growth of India's energy sector."

"Like Scotland, India is blessed with an abundance of the natural resources needed to generate renewable energy and its government is clearly committed to exploiting this in order to secure its energy future and meet the current energy needs of remote and rural communities." said Michael Russell.

"We hold a world leading position in the development of offshore wind with the Beatrice offshore wind demonstrator turbines located in the Moray Firth. The lessons learned will be vital to the future large scale deployment of offshore wind across the world.

"We have world class expertise in the integration of renewable technologies to provide power to remote communities. In addition, the development and deployment of marine energy is supported by the most generous support for commercially deployed marine renewables projects in the UK. Our leadership and innovation in this area can help India achieve its renewables goals, while Scottish organisations benefit from India's own expertise."

In Scotland, the practical execution of this long term partnership will be led by the groundbreaking Energy Technology Partnership (ETP), a unique alliance of strong, independent Scottish Universities, currently engaged in world class energy research, development and demonstration. The ETP will coordinate the wealth of Scottish bodies undertaking research and development in renewables and match-make them with Indian counterparts. The ETP - the only organisation of its kind in Europe - has a strong track record of excellence in this field, making it the ideal lead partner for Indian Universities and research organisations looking to exploit Scottish innovation.

Today's signing forms an important part of Michael Russell's week-long visit to India to build business and cultural links between the two countries - links based on a long history of cooperation and trade. Stimulating international trade and investment is a key part of the Scottish Government's economic strategy. India is an attractive market for Scottish companies and an important existing investor in Scotland. SDI recently doubled its presence in India, in response to growing opportunities for partnership.

Background

Follow Michael Russell's visit to India on his blog at http://mrussellindia.wordpress.com

Photos from the visit are available at www.flickr.com/scottishgovernment

Copies of the MoU are available from Ross Proctor at the numbers below.

India has over 7000km of coastline meaning huge potential for offshore wind energy. India may be able to generate almost five times more wind energy capacity than the government's estimate by 2030, if it is able to tap its offshore wind resources. Scotland can be an important partner in providing expertise in achieving this.

Like India, Scotland is blessed with ideal natural resources. It is estimated that Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe's tidal resource, 25 per cent of its offshore wind resource and 10 per cent of its wave potential.

Scotland's first offshore wind farm, a 60-turbine farm in Solway Firth, commenced operation in July. There are plans to build wind farms in ten other areas of Scotland's territorial waters, as well as two massive farms in territories beyond those waters.

Scotland is a recognised world leader in tidal and wave power. The European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney is the only facility of its kind in the world. Marine energy experts from around the world come to Scotland to test new technologies, putting Scotland at the cutting edge of device technology in marine energy.

The Saltire Prize, at £10 million, is the world's largest prize for advances in marine energy. Sponsored by the Scottish Government, it demonstrates Scotland's commitment to international collaboration in the field of renewable energy.

The award has an international prize committee consisting of eleven leading scientists from different parts of the world, including Dr R K Pachauri, Indian economist and environmental scientist and is attracting interest from Indian organisations.

Scotland is a leader in research into second generation biofuels (i.e. biofuels derived from waste), also of great potential to India given its large agriculture industry.


CONTACT DETAILS
Siddharth Kumar, Comma Consulting, +91 9810267907, skumar@comma.in
Shilpa Gupta, Comma Consulting, +91 9818180180, sgupta@comma.in

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENVIRONMENT, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, ENERGY, HEAVY INDUSTRIES, TECHNOLOGY

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