U.S. and India Cooperate on Clean Energy Technologies

Recently, President Barack Obama and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that commits their nations to work together on the development and deployment of clean energy technology.

The White House announced the two nations will launch a Clean Energy and Climate Change Initiative, with the goal of improving technologies to make clean energy more affordable and efficient. The initiative will include cooperation in wind and solar energy, second-generation biofuels, and energy efficiency, as well as unconventional sources of natural gas and clean coal technologies, including carbon capture and storage.

Cooperation between the U.S. and India is a critical step toward success at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen. Many nations have been reluctant to commit to the proposed carbon reduction targets if larger polluters, such as the U.S. and India, are unwilling to promise substantial improvements in environmental and energy-efficiency initiatives. The two leaders also affirmed that the Copenhagen outcome must be comprehensive and should reflect emission reduction targets for developed countries and nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries. President Obama met with Chinese leaders two weeks ago and they also announced a number of joint Sino-U.S. green initiatives.

India and the United States also initiated an Indo-U.S. Clean Energy Research and Deployment Initiative, supported by government and private-sector funds. The initiative will leverage expertise from both countries and may cover such topics as energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, second-generation biofuels, battery technology, the Smart Grid, solar energy, wind energy, and micro-hydropower. It will also include a Joint Research Center operating in both countries to accelerate the deployment of clean energy technologies.

The two nations also signed MOUs on solar and wind energy. Under the solar MOU, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) will partner with India's Solar Energy Centre to create a comprehensive nationwide map of the solar potential in India. Also, more than two dozen U.S. and Indian cities will team up to jointly boost solar energy development. The wind MOU, which includes a partnership between NREL and India's Centre for Wind Energy Technology, will focus on developing a low-speed wind turbine.

Image courtesy of TopNews.in