India, US Launch Solar Energy Research Institute With $50 Million Funding

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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) along with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore have officially launched the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and United States (SERIIUS) with $50 million collaboration to promote solar energy research.

The research institute forms collaboration between academia and industry (from both countries) for the development of solar energy in both the countries.

SERIIUS is a part of PACE program that was launched in 2010 by US President Barrack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, according to Kamanio Chattopadhyay, co-founder of SERIIUS.

This joint centre on solar energy is led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on the US side and the Department of Science and Technology on the Indian side, and both have committed to provide $12.5 million over a period of 5 years, while an additional $25.5 million will be provided by the consortium of 30 partners from both India and US sides (comprising of academic institutions, industries, and R&D laboratories).

The SERIIUS will work on the following six objectives:

  1. Focus efforts on high-impact fundamental and applied research and development (R&D) to create disruptive technologies in PV and CSP.
  2. Identify critical technical, economic, and policy issues for solar energy development and deployment in India.
  3. Identify barriers in technology transfer and how to overcome them by making effective project structure by teaming research institutions and industry. Reduce the time from discovery to technology development and commercialization, through effective coordination, communication, and intellectual property management.
  4. Creation of a new platform for bi-national collaboration using a formalized R&D project structure, along with effective management, coordination, and decision processes.
  5. Creation of a sustainable network to build large collaborations and foster a collaborative culture and outreach programs. This will include the use of existing and new methodologies for collaboration based on advanced electronic and Web-based communication to facilitate functional international focused teams.
  6. Development of a strong workspace program in solar energy science and technology.

 
Kamanio Chattopadhyay, called this collaboration a “programme without borders,” which “may lead to a paradigm shift in solar energy technology.”

Photo Credit: glennharper (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)

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Mridul Chadha

Mridul currently works as Head-News & Data at Climate Connect Limited, a market research and analytics firm in the renewable energy and carbon markets domain. He earned his Master’s in Technology degree from The Energy & Resources Institute in Renewable Energy Engineering and Management. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering. Mridul has a keen interest in renewable energy sector in India and emerging carbon markets like China and Australia.

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