Germany to provide USD 1.3 bn for renewable energy in India
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Germany's
offer as part of its development cooperation with India was made in a
"joint declaration of intent" signed by Union Minister for Renewable
Energy Farooq Abdullah and parliamentary state secretary in the Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Gudrun Kopp during the
second inter-governmental consultations that concluded in Berlin on
Friday.
The
assistance is intended to finance joint development of technical
solutions to overcome the problems facing the integration of power grids
and also to speed up the construction of power lines to efficiently
transport electricity generated by renewable energy sources, the
ministry said in a press statement.
India has been a main partner of Germany's
development cooperation for more than five decades and the two nations
are currently focusing on environment protection and combating climate
change, promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency, adaptation
to the climate change and support for environmentally relevant urban
infrastructure development.
Building
up of the power transmission lines and efficient feeding of electricity
generated by renewable energy sources into the power grid "presented
enormous challenges" to India and Germany is keen to support its Indian partners in these areas, Kopp said.
Development of renewable energy is a common goal of India and Germany, she said.
There is no alternative to building up renewable energy in the fight against climate change.
Building up of
renewable energy is very crucial to bring power generation in India in
harmony with environment protection, Kopp said.
The
agreement was signed in presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who jointly chaired the
inter-governmental consultations.
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