EU seeks solar energy collaboration with India
New Delhi, Sep 7 (EFE).- The European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said on Wednesday that India was a key ally for the European Union to achieve energy independence through solar power, in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“The EU and India can learn from each other. Especially when it comes to diversifying supply chains and developing an open, competitive and rules-based market for solar,” Simson said during a solar energy forum in New Delhi.
The event, jointly organized by the EU and the Indian ministry of new and renewable energy, the commissioner stressed that both the countries had a responsibility to help “drive the shift towards renewables.”
“The need for clean and renewable energy is most relevant for both the EU and India to meet their objectives under the Paris Agreement,” the EU said in its statement.
In the context of the pandemic and the Ukraine war, which has resulted in Moscow cutting off gas supplies to Europe, “it is in our common interest that we evolve from our old ways of polluting to newer cleaner sources. And solar can be central to that evolution,” Simson said.
The Indian minister for new and renewable energy, Bhagwanth Khuba, stressed the need to diversify supply chains and talked of India’s plans to boost the manufacturing of batteries and PV solar panels.
Khuba said that New Delhi was seeking cooperation with EU for research and development in the photovoltaic solar technology.
Several European and Indian companies participated in the event, to discuss how to improve resources and the current difficulties for India to become competitive in the solar energy sector.
The experts highlighted the possibilities for India – one of the world’s most populated and youngest countries in the world with a huge technological potential – in developing green energy in cooperation with the EU.
Both India and Eu have in recent years reaffirmed their commitment to reducing emissions of polluting gases under the India-EU Clean Energy and Climate Partnership, which they signed in 2016 to strengthen cooperation in clean energies and implement the Paris Accord.
In the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the target of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2070. EFE
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