India and USA agree to collaborate on new fuels, Energy News, ET EnergyWorld

India and the US have agreed to expand their energy partnership by adding new fuels to the list of areas of cooperation that previously included power and energy efficiency, oil and gas, renewable energy and sustainable growth, an official statement said. This was followed on Thursday evening by a ministerial meeting of the US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP).

“The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, led a virtual ministerial meeting with US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to launch the newly designed US-India Strategic Partnership for Clean Energy (SCEP),” one reads Statement from the Ministry of Oil.

The SCEP was launched in line with the U.S.-India partnership under the 2030 Agenda for Climate and Clean Energy, presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden at the April Climate Summit of Heads of State and Government Announced this year.

“The two sides announced the addition of a fifth pillar for emerging fuels, signaling a shared will to promote clean energy fuels,” it said.

It added that “a new India-US Biofuels Task Force has also been announced to build on the scope of the biofuel cooperation work.”

The intergovernmental engagement of the SCEP now extends to five pillars of cooperation – electricity and energy efficiency, responsible oil and gas, renewable energies, sustainable growth and new fuels.

The statement said that Minister Puri and the Secretary reviewed progress, key achievements and prioritized new areas for cooperation under the different pillars.

“The meeting also reviewed the progress made in civilian cooperation between India and the US in the field of civil nuclear energy,” it said without giving any details.

“Minister Puri stressed that the newly designed clean energy partnership will intensify efforts on both sides to leverage the complementarities between the US and India – advanced US technologies and the fast growing Indian energy market for a win-win situation through a cleaner “energy route with low-carbon paths,” it said.

Once revised, significant emphasis would be placed on expanding renewable energy cooperation through work on multiple projects and system-friendly practices in the Indian renewable energy sector.

“The US Secretary of State praised India’s target of 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030 and offered to work closely together on India realizing that target,” the statement said.

“Both sides will strengthen the power grid in India to support large-scale integration of renewable energies, including through smart grids, energy storage, flexible and distributed energy resources, and ensure reliable and resilient grid operation, as well as promoting energy efficiency and conservation measures”, added her.

The two sides also announced the renaming of the Gas Task Force to India-US Low Emissions Gas Task Force, which would continue to forge collaboration between US and Indian companies on innovative projects to support India’s vision of a gas-based economy.

The two sides also agreed to continue developing better knowledge about methane avoidance within the framework of this task force.

Both sides have initiated the institutionalization of the India Energy Modeling Forum with the establishment of six task forces to carry out research and modeling in different areas. Joint committees have been set up to discuss energy data management, low carbon technologies and a just transition in the coal sector.

Building on the success of the first phase, both sides agreed the scope of the work in the second phase on the Indian side on the side of the Department of Science & Technology.