IIT Jodhpur inaugurates ‘Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy’ in collaboration with Rajasthan Solar Association

 

JODHPUR : Rajasthan Solar Association launched the Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy at the Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Jodhpur Technology Park, on Friday, 28th January 2022. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between both the parties aims at supporting research and development work for renewable energy. The event was followed by a formal meeting of all CSR stakeholders.

 

In addition to these, various specific courses and programs will also be designed to up-skill the available workforce resources. This collaboration would make IIT Jodhpur Technology Park a vital manufacturing hub that will provide consistent industry exposure to the students, professionals and other stakeholders.

 

Some of the focus areas of research in this collaboration would be:

· Advanced electronics

· Remote monitoring

· Trackers and inverters

· Automatic cleaning systems

· Solar, thermal and wind-solar

· Interventions in solar panel technologies

· Research on polysilicon and entire value-chain

· AI and deep learning

 

Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, Director, IIT Jodhpur, Prof. Sampat Raj Vadera, Deputy Director, IIT Jodhpur, Mr. Sunil Bansal, President, Rajasthan Solar Association, Shri Anil Kumar Saboo, Chairman & MD, Elektrolites & President, Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers’ Association and other dignitaries were present during the launch event of the Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy.

 

While inaugurating the centre, Mr. Sunil Kumar, President, Rajasthan Solar Association, said, “Solar industry is the lifeline of Rajasthan, currently 33 GW power generation pipeline we have which will be set-up in 2-3 years. We wanted to accelerate solar industries in Rajasthan so that lots of entrepreneurs and MSMEs can come forward and set-up manufacturing units of Rajasthan in the IIT Jodhpur technology Park particularly the electronics components that are right now imported. This centre will also play a vital role in providing skilling/up-skilling opportunities and Rajasthan Solar Association has already signed an MoU with German Govt. Agency which is a trade economy worldwide. With the help of their expertise, we will do skilling of master classes students to make them productive immediately and other industrial people of India so we can connect academia and industry leaders effectively”

 

Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, Director, IIT Jodhpur, further added, “Renewable energy is today game changing and, in that game, changing perspective this initiative of comping together of industry consortium and IIT Jodhpur is a landmark in it. We are trying to create an opportunity and possibility by not just generation of solar power but usage of solar power for variety of other applications. He added that it would be extremely critical in context of Rajasthan how to convert brackish water into potable water using solar thermal as an energy source because most of the ground water is brackish water. There are variants of domination but how optimal we can combine solar thermal for various applications would be very important. Solar thermal has been much less exploited in the context of India and Rajasthan. That’s a huge potential because we know as the temperature goes up the efficiency of the solar panels goes down, therefore, solar thermal will provide an alternative and we will encourage such industries in the Tech Park besides already planned opportunities. Having a centre of excellence for renewable energy in Jodhpur further signifies its strength because Jodhpur is known as Sun City of India.”

 

Shri Anil Kumar Saboo, Chairman & MD, Elektrolites, said that by year 2026-27 all India power generation capacity shall be near 627 GW and at present it is just 382 GW. Out of which 38 % is coming from core sector and 44 % is coming from renewable sector which is further going to increase. Hence having such a centre of excellence with the brightest minds of India would accelerate the planned delivery. Our IITs, scientists, real research fellows can achieve the target if academia and industry can join hands together.

 

Rajasthan Solar Association was set up under Rajasthan Non-Trading Companies Act 1960 to promote the solar power industry in the state. Since its inception, the focus of the association has remained in shaping solar policies, suitable regulatory framework, facilitating industry-academia interface, generating awareness and promoting research. The Government of Rajasthan is promoting the renewable energy sector on a large scale as the potential is enormous in the state.

 

The Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy, IIT Jodhpur, aims to promote awareness on the commercialization potential of renewable energy, create an ecosystem of the shared research facility, and educate and provide career support to budding scientists in this area.