Towards expanding research projects in areas of climate change mitigation and enabling green transition, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras has announced a collaboration with Industry and Academia in Denmark on 1st March 2023.
Four projects were disclosed in the presence of the Crown Prince of Denmark, Lars Aagaard, Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, Government of Denmark, and Freddy Svane, Ambassador of Denmark to India, among other stakeholders.
Three out of these four projects were announced to enable energy transition towards a low-carbon future as envisioned by IIT Madras Energy Consortium. They intend to;
– Accelerate technology development through industry-academia-government partnerships
– Collaborate with global partners to develop technology solutions that once deployed at scale in India will essentially become technology solutions for the world
“Since the 1980s, India has established 40 GW of Onshore Wind, which is truly a lot. India has also presented an ambitious plan to establish 140 GW of Wind Energy by 2030, of which 30 GW would be offshore and the rest onshore… In January 2023, India presented a plan which aims to convert India to a global green energy production hub,” Denmark’s Climate and Energy Minister stated during the event.
Highlighting Denmark’s boosted investments for new technologies that need to be scaled, the Minister further remarked, “We see great potential in sharing mutual knowledge with India and its bright engineers, which can help in implementing these technologies.”
The fourth project was signed in the realm of Water to promote cooperation in engineering education and scientific research between Danfoss, Denmark and IIT Madras. Both institutions will undertake joint work on drinking water for coastal regions using renewable energy.
Emphasising that Southern Tamil Nadu would be developed as a Renewable Energy Hub with a focus on wind, solar and various other ways of storing this energy including green hydrogen, S. Krishnan, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce in Government of Tamil Nadu informed that, “There is a considerable interest from a number of companies to establish facilities here.”
Tamil Nadu has a Renewable Energy Installed Capacity of 20 GW of which 10 GW are in wind. Since many Danish Companies have been engaging with the State on RE development its potential for another 13 GW of Wind Energy onshore and 20 GW of offshore can further be optimised. “The most promising offshore locations in India are off the Tamil Nadu Coast – The Gulf of Mannar,” the Additional Chief Secretary entailed.
Conducted jointly by Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD), and Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, IIT Madras will collaborate with Danish researchers on the following two out of the total four projects awarded:
– ECoGrif [Efficient Cost saving Grid Friendly] Power to X Converter (Focused on Hydrogen economy)
Partners: IIT Madras, Aalborg University, University of Southern Denmark, Danfoss
Lead Institute & PI: Prof. Krishna Vasudevan, Faculty, IIT Madras
– Tomorrow project! (Focused on Cement decarbonization)
Partners: IIT Madras, FLSmidth, Technical University of Denmark
Lead Institute & PI: Prof Varun Kumar S., IIT Madras
With the announcement of these highly qualified projects, under the Indo-Danish bilateral research call on green fuels, India and Denmark have taken another important step in delivering on the ambitions of the Green Strategic Partnership.
