Thaindian News

New Delhi, Apr 5 (ANI): India today offered to set up an international centre on energy access to boost the provision of energy to remote and inaccessible areas.

The offer was made by New and Renewable Energy Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah at the inaugural session of the assembly of the International Renewable Energy agency-IRENA currently being held at Abu Dhabi, UAE, IRENA.

Making a strong pitch for the use of renewable energy, Dr Abdullah emphasized that renewable energy is the only hope for the future.

“However, in order to make it the preferred energy worldwide and to scale up the use of renewable energy in the energy mix, the nations of the world need to cooperate more and share information, technology and best practices,” he said.

He said this would be necessary to bring energy access to vast areas of the world, which have yet to experience the fruits of commercial energy.

He also offered to host an international conference on energy access later this year to bring this idea to fruition.

He also announced the scaling up of India’s international programme on capacity building and to share expertise and best practices with developing countries.

India today stands among the top five countries of the world in terms of renewable energy capacity with an installed base of over 19000 MW of grid interactive renewable power, which is around 11 per cent of our total installed capacity. In addition, it adds about 2500 MW of renewable power annually.

The world’s first intergovernmental agency on renewable agency was established in 2009 with the main objective of fostering international cooperation and promoting international understanding on renewable energy.

India has been associated with the formation of IRENA from the beginning and was among the first 25 countries to ratify its statute. (ANI)