Research projects in the area of forecasting of wind power and fabrication of cost effective solar cells will be considered for financing by the Indian and Spanish governments. This was decided during a meeting in New Delhi between the Minister of New & Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Ms. Carmen Vela Olmo, Minister of State for Research, Development and Innovation, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.Ms. Carmen Vela Olmo is currently visiting India on a 3 day official visit.During the meeting, the two ministers agreed to enhance research cooperation between India and Spain in the field of Renewable Energy. They also decided to initiate a second call for research proposals so as to encourage joint research and development activities between research institutions as well as industry groups of both countries.
The joint Indo-Spanish programme for Technological cooperation in Renewable Energy was developed as a consequence of the visit of the Minister of New & Renewable Energy, to Spain last year. Following the signing of the agreement in May, 2012, a joint call for project proposals waas published. Proposals on various aspects on Renewable Energy involving industry and R & D institutions in both the countries and covering all aspects of Renewable Energy was received by the committee.
India is the fifth largest country in the world in terms of wind power installed capacity. In addition, India’s national Solar Mission aims to facilitate the installation of 20000 MW of grid connected power capacity by 2020. Spain is the 4th largest producer of wind generated power and is top-ranked worldwide in terms of photovoltaic solar power capacity. The Solar Platform of Almeria (PSA), run under the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness is considered one of the largest and best R&D facilitates for Concentrating Solar Power Technologies (CSP) Technologies.