WeSchool matches 11 Swedish renewable energy companies with Indian partners

The ‘India-Swedish Collaborations for Innovative Energy Solutions’ successfully concludes on April 23, 2014 at WeSchool campus in Mumbai. The initiative is led by India-Sweden Innovations´ Accelerator (ISIA), which is a bilateral program that will contribute to facilitating technology transfer and market entrance in India for Swedish innovative companies, focusing on scaling and adapting their technologies in the renewable energy space to the local context. This initiative aims to support Indian government’s plans to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and increase capacity of renewable energy.  The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of India has made a plan for a capacity addition of about 30,000 MW power during the 12th Plan period (2012-17) from various renewable energy sources mostly through private sector participation in the country.   MNRE has also launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in January, 2010 aiming to 20,000 MW grid power from solar energy by March 31st 2022.

The initiative is supported by Swedish Energy Agency, Business Sweden and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) – Green Business Centre, while Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research (WeSchool) and Mälardalen University are the academic partners.

Based on a 2009 EU directive to promote the development of renewable energy sources, Sweden aims to increase renewable energy to 50 per cent of national supply by 2020. The present figure is 48 per cent, largely thanks to the large proportion of hydropower and biofuels in the energy system. The 48 per cent figure for renewable energy – including electricity, district heating and fuel – is higher than that in most EU countries.

Renowned Indian energy companies like Sahara India Pariwar, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Tata Power, Ultratech etc attended the event seeking potential partnerships with Swedish counterparts like Opcon, S Solar, HiNation, FOV Biogas, Clean Motion etc in the form of joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions and the like. The initiative will be taken forward by 11 teams which will comprise of one Indian company and one Swedish company in each team.  The teams will also comprise of a total of 35 students from WeSchool and Institute for Future Education Entrepreneurship and Leadership (iFEEL), who would be working together for the next few months to create future proof business models that can be implemented in the Indian market. Such developments would help fulfill India’s alarming per capita power consumption which is estimated to have doubled from approximately 400 kWh in 2007 to almost 800 kWh in 2012, while the power generation capacity increased only 99GW in the past 11 years. India is an attractive market for renewable energy due to both the availability of high solar radiance, wind speeds, as well as the power deficit. Renewable energy lends itself to decentralized generation and distribution further makes it an attractive option for India.

Talking on the occasion, Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool said, “Rapid development and population explosion has created a sharp gap between India’s demand and supply for energy. Being one of the worst hit nations due to climate change, it’s necessary to take steps that will help reduce dependency on conventional resources like coal and gas and explore deeper in the clean technology segment thereby reducing our carbon footprint. This initiative is an ideal platform to explore new avenues in renewable energy space using Sweden’s expertise and India’s vast resources like solar, small-hydro, biomass etc, to meet the energy requirements in a sustainable and affordable manner.”

He added, “This is also a great opportunity for our students to work with these companies and get hands on experience in implementing their theoretical knowledge to practical use.”

Mr Ludvig Lindstrom, Country Manager India, Swedish Energy Agency said, “Sweden’s objective to have a secure and sustainable energy ecosystem has lead to the country’s rapid developments in this space. Sweden is one of the few countries in the world with strong capabilities in the renewable energy and clean technology industry. So, today we aspire to spread our success to other global nations like India which is on a growth spree. India is struggling to suffice the energy requirements of its highly aspirational populace. This initiative would be a great opportunity for them to induce developments in the renewable energy space through collaborations with Swedish companies. We hope, this will help bring in innovative technologies that will meet India’s energy requirements at affordable rates and also boost bilateral relationship between both the countries.”

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