India, EU partnership to boost clean energy initiatives

The cooperation between India and the European Union will facilitate policy dialogue and bring best practices as well as business solutions for clean energy projects, particularly in the farm sector.
"The partnership between India and the EU will facilitate policy dialogue, bring best practices, business solutions and joint research and innovation and will look at financing models for clean energy and climate change," Ficci quoted Tomasz Kozlowski, Ambassador, European Union Delegation to India as saying, in a statement.
Kozlowski was delivering his keynote address at a workshop on 'Agricultural Demand Side Management (AgDSM)-Adopting Technologies to Boost Efficiencies', organised by FICCI and European Commission.

The European Investment Bank has already provided loans for more than euro 1.2 billion to support implementation of energy and climate related projects in India, he said adding that the EU was closely involved in developing offshore wind, solar parks and energy efficiency in India.
Agriculture uses about 18 per cent of the electricity consumed in India. This means that to tackle energy security, to implement India's climate commitments, as well as to ensure food security and deal with water challenges, India must consider energy efficiency in irrigation, Ficci said in the statement.
Hence, the European Union has brought policy and financial experts as well as European Business to India offering concrete solutions in this regard, Kozlowski said.

B P Pandey, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Power and Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), said that there are about 20.27 million electrified pumpsets installed in the agriculture sector.
Further, due to the increasing demand for water to meet the agricultural needs, about 0.25 to 0.5 million new pump sets are being added annually. These high efficiency pumps would save about 25-30 per cent energy.
He added that the industry had sufficient pumpsets to supply but there was a need to work out a feasible finance models for adoption of these pumpsets.