New Delhi: US Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk has assured India that the USA will deepen its collaboration with India in Nuclear Energy. David Turk said that there is a lot of complementarity on the subject between India and the USA. He also promised deeper engagement with India in the Green Hydrogen sector as recently announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day Speech.
The visiting Deputy Secretary of Energy said that the green hydrogen sector is also an imperative for Climate Change and mitigation related issues. The two countries have also signed up for the transformation of the US-India gas task force. The new agreement would emphasize the intersectionality between bioenergy, hydrogen, and renewable fuels with natural gas.
Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday met a high level US Delegation led by Turk. He said that India and the United States are revamping their strategic partnership to focus on clean energy sectors, such as biofuels and hydrogen.
Dr Singh called for greater Indo-US cooperation in the field of clean and green energy and reiterated India’s commitment to promote Atomic and Nuclear programme for providing not only a major source of clean energy but also as a major tool of application in areas like healthcare and agriculture sector.
Dr Singh informed the delegation that in the next ten years, India will produce more than three times nuclear power and it is expected to reach 22,480 MW by the year 2031, from the current 6780 MW as more nuclear power plants are also planned in future. Dr Singh also underlined the proposal for establishing a Research Reactor in PPP mode for production of medical isotopes to promote welfare of humanity through affordable treatment for cancer and other diseases.
“With rapid introduction of biofuels, renewable energy and green hydrogen, India is well poised to play an important role towards carbon neutrality. He informed that the government is already encouraging adaptation of hydrogen fuels and technology for the mobility sector and many industries like steel, cement, and glass manufacturing have already started using hydrogen for heating requirements.” Dr Singh said.
Referring to all-encompassing cooperation in Science and Technology and academia exchange programmes, Dr Jitendra Singh said that India has proposed to launch a mission “Integrated Bio refineries” where the US is actively supporting the initiative. A few areas of potential R&D for collaboration in Advanced Biofuels and Renewable Chemicals and Materials have been identified. He said, under Mission Innovation phase 1.0, India has been actively co-leading the Sustainable Biofuel Innovation challenge and supporting the RD&D collaborative projects via funding opportunity announcement, in close coordination with other IC4 member countries, including the USA.
