In what will help add heft to India’s climate change stand on the international stage, state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has invited proposals for strategic partnerships with clean tech organisations in the UK, Europe and North America to entering these markets.
EESL’s move to spread its footprint outside India is significant as it shows India is ready to lead the world on a path of renewable and energy efficiency, especially after US President Donald Trump announced pulling out from the Paris climate deal a few weeks ago.
India emerged as a leading player at the Paris 2015 Climate Summit, where it expressed that it is ready to lead the world. With its ambitious 175 GW renewable power programme, it has already shown the world that it is serious about its commitment to stop climate change.
With a £5.6 billion energy efficiency portfolio, EESL has already made its overseas foray with London operations. At present, EESL has established operations in the UK by investing around £7 million in seven energy saving projects which are in operation for more than two years with investments across myriad energy conservation measures (ECMs) like lighting, solar, biomass boilers and energy storage.
The main objective of strategic partnership is to provide energy efficiency services in the areas of lighting and several industrial applications. The key focus energy efficiency areas which are proposed by EESL for expansion outside India are LED (light-emitting diode) programme, smart metering, energy efficient storage batteries and district heating.
India’s LED bulb programme is the world’s largest lighting replacement programme under which it aims to replace 770 million old wasteful lamps with modern, efficient and longer lasting LED lamps, without any government subsidies, by 2019. Till date, more than 243.8 million LED bulbs have already been replaced across India.
However, EESL will be open to working with organizations that are working on projects related to clean energy, energy efficiency, and low carbon growth strategy as well, according to the EoI (expression of interest).
Another important area where EESL is looking for partnerships in funding is combined heat and power (CHP) systems to generate electricity and useful thermal energy in a single, integrated system.
EESL has asked interested organizations to submit their documents by 3 July and the results will be announced by 13 July.
India is betting big on mainstreaming energy efficiency to target climate change. Besides LED bulbs, it is already working big time on energy-efficient ceiling fans and LED tube lights.
Under its voluntary targets submitted to the United Nations United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) prior to the Paris climate summit in 2015, India promised to improve energy efficiency of its industries, coal power plants, launch energy conservation building code and carry out massive programmes involving the likes of LED bulbs and energy-efficient fans.
Last month, when minister for new and renewable energy Piyush Goyal was in London, he requested the UK government to get EESL in touch with stakeholders like local distribution companies, e-commerce companies, hotels, industry, large businesses and supermarket chains, and replicate India’s LED scheme in the UK to achieve a similar kind of scale-up that the programme has witnessed in India as a zero investment model.
Goyal suggested to the UK government a target of replacing at least 100 million incandescent bulbs with LEDs by March 2019 to reduce individual household consumption of energy by at least half.
EESL, since its inception, has worked on implementing energy efficiency projects in India and has primarily worked in public facilities like distribution utilities, municipalities, buildings, agriculture and in implementation of innovative business models.
Source: Live Mint
