Agreement ENEA-Indian university for development of renewable

Renewables is a key-sector for promoting sustainable growth in India. On this basis ENEA and the Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology  (MMMUT) in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India,  signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The academic activities of the University focus on energy, the environment and a sustainable development, fully in tune with ENEA’s mission.

Besides strengthening the mutual scientific collaboration, the agreement commits ENEA  to  deal with projects of biomass gasification for the production of thermal/electric energy from biomass hydrocarbons, low-temperature thermal solar energy and the organization of training courses on  renewable energies.

“This agreement is strategic for our Energy Department and ENEA as a whole, since it allows to valorize and capitalize our in-house competences on thermochemical and biotechnological processes,  which have enabled us to establish several pilot plants to be replicated in India, with the involvement of some national company in the Indian market”, Giacobbe Braccio, Head of the ENEA Bioenergy, Biorefinery and Green Chemistry Division, pointed out.

In the first phase of the programme, in-depth feasibility studies will be conducted  for facilities planning, valorization of small sized gasifiers (50-60 kWe) and applications in local farms. Experimental activities on various biofuels/fossil fuels mixes to evaluate the best compromises to reduce emissions, will be conducted.

The programme outline was defined during the international conference “Challenges in sustainable development from energy & environment perspective” held in Gorakhpur last march and where the first technical meetings between representatives of ENEA and MMMUT took place.

The state of progress of the project and the definition of the working programme regarding the second phase of activity will be the focus of the meeting between the representatives of both parties,  due to take place in the very near future.

The Agreement has raised a strong interest in Indian scientific institutions like the Energy Department of the Technology Institute in New Delhi and the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) in Bhopal.

The indian energy sector is one of the more diversified in the world: electric energy demand has been growing at a very fast pace, although its infrastructures are inadequate both in terms of production and distribution.

In order to meet the growing need of energy development, the Indian Government has decided to invest over 250 billion dollars in renewable technologies by 2022, zeroing on both the increase of its share in the energy mix and new energy  transmission and distribution systems (smart grid and smart city). The objective in the next five years is to install 224 GW of new clean power from renewables, funded with a mix of debt and equity held by commercial banks and the Green Climate Fund as well, with which the rich economies have pledged to support developing countries in their fight on climate change.

For more information please contact:

Vinod Kumar Sharma, ENEA – Division  Bioenergy, Biorefinery and Green Chemistry sharma@enea.it