Indo-US Clean Energy MoU

India and the United States have signed a Clean Energy MoU to work towards increased cooperation on energy security, clean energy and climate change, before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Washington DC.

The Clean Energy MoU was signed by India's Power Secretary P.K. Pujari and US Ambassador Richard Verma, a statement said.

The priority initiatives under the Clean Energy MoU would be, among others, "US-India Energy smart Cities Partnership; Greening the Grid; Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE) expansion; energy efficiency including space cooling; renewable energy, energy security, and accelerating innovation on clean energy", the statement added.

At the India-US Ministerial Energy Dialogue held in Washington last September, co-chaired by India's Power Minister Piyush Goyal and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the ministers reviewed the progress made by the six working groups of the energy dialogue and identified new areas for cooperation.

The six working groups would be working on coal, new technology and renewable energy, petroleum and natural gas, power and energy efficiency, sustainable development and the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy-Research (PACE-R).

During the negotiations, it was also agreed to explore addition of smart grids and energy storage for grid application as the fourth stream under PACE-R.

Discussions were also held in the working groups on financing of clean energy technology as well as on innovative financing for renewable energy microfinance and micro enterprises.