CEEW hosts US Energy Secretary Dr Ernest Moniz for a Roundtable on Decentralised Clean Energy

NEW DELHI - March 11, 2014 - PRLog -- New Delhi, 11 March 2014: The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) hosted a roundtable today with U.S. Secretary of Energy, Dr Ernest Moniz, in New Delhi on ‘Scaling Decentralised Clean Energy in India’.

Nearly 45 per cent of rural households in India still do not have access to electricity and less than a third have access to clean cooking fuels. “Expanding energy access through decentralised energy generation from renewable sources (such as solar, small-hydro, biomass, and biogas) presents a viable alternative to meet rural India’s growing energy demands,” said Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of CEEW.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz stated, "Clean energy is an essential pillar of the U.S.-India relationship. In September 2013, we launched a new program in our clean energy partnership, PEACE, with the transformational goal of off grid energy access to drive economic growth and improve lives across rural India."

The dialogue with Dr Moniz included practitioners in the decentralised energy sector, financiers and government officials (including Dr Satish Agnihotri, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy). It focused on potential areas of joint cooperation, such as technology, reducing information barriers and increasing access to finance.

It follows on from the Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE) initiative, an agreement between the governments of the United States and India for improving energy access in India. Under PEACE, efforts are being made to establish a new off-grid clean energy alliance and the “PACEsetter Fund” for supporting early-stage clean energy access projects.

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About CEEW:

The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) is an independent, not-for-profit policy research institution. Ranked as India’s top climate-related think-tank, CEEW addresses pressing global challenges through an integrated and internationally focused approach. It does so through high-quality research, partnerships with public and private institutions, and engagement with and outreach to the wider public. For more information, visit ceew.in.

For more details, kindly contact:

Mihir Shah

Communications Specialist, CEEW

Email: mihir.shah@ceew.in   Tel: +91 8585918854