Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Nov 7: The first ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on cooperation in Renewable Energy was held in the capital today.
Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy while inaugurating the meeting underlined the importance of Renewable Energy in India’s energy security, for achieving its goal of providing reliable energy supply and access through a diverse and sustainable energy mix.
He stated that ASEAN member countries and India have several commonalities in their quest for targeting renewable energy. Globally, renewable energy has started making a positive impact on energy supply. The Global Renewable Energy Status Report 2012 reveals that renewable energy has grown to supply 16.7 per cent of the global energy consumption.
Dr. Farooq Abdullah stated that today India stands among the top five countries of the world in terms of renewable energy installed capacity and at present renewable power, with over 26 GW installed capacity, represents about 12.5 percent of the total installed power generation capacity in India. He further said that India aims to achieve about 55 GW of renewable power by 2017.
This meeting is a beginning to explore new horizons, new pathways to cooperation and new solutions to existing challenges. It aims to foster greater dialogue, greater sharing and increased interactions at institutional as well as industry levels among ASEAN countries and India. Dr. Abdullah, envisioned that every citizen of ASEAN-India region should have access to clean, reliable and affordable energy.
The meeting was attended by Pehin Dato Mohammad Yasmin Umar, Minister of Energy, Brunei Darussalam, Dato’ Sri Peter Chin Fah Kui, Minister of Energy, Green Technology & Water, Malaysia and Tran Quoc Khanh, Vice Minister of MOIT, Vietnam. The other delegations were headed by respective Ambassadors and High Commissioners.
The Ministers of ASEAN member countries presented the present status of renewable energy utilization in their respective countries and all of them reiterated the need for augmenting renewable energy applications in view of ensuing needs and also to curb emission of Green House Gases.
Many ASEAN countries sought cooperation in Solar, Wind, Biomass, Small Hydro Technologies including capacity building from India. At the end, the Chairman’s Statement on joint cooperation for renewable energy applications was adopted by the Ministers and Heads of Delegations of ASEAN country and India.
Prior to this meeting, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), organized an ‘ASEAN-India Workshop on Cooperation in Renewable Energy’ of experts and policy planners from ASEAN countries and India.
The workshop was attended by 17 participants from 8 ASEAN member countries with over 170 delegates from all over India and from different streams of renewable energy. Over 30 experts made their presentations on the subjects of Wind, Solar photovoltaic, Solar thermal, Bio-energy, Renewable Energy Resource Assessment Techniques, Off-grid Applications and Micro-grid for Rural Electrification.
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