University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, organised a day long workshop on its campus to guide the youth of Uttarakhand on various aspects of setting up their respective businesses in the solar energy sector under the title of “Selling solar lights: Technology and finance.
The workshop was part of an initiative under a joint venture project of GIZ and MNRE through its State agency ‘Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency’ (UREDA). Arun Dhand, Director (media affairs) of UPES disclosed that Federal Ministry of economic cooperation and development (BMZ) of Germany and Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) have developed a bilateral technical cooperation collaboration under the banner of “Indo-German energy program - renewable energy component”(IGEN - RE).
The focus areas of this collaboration are three fold which include to make policies which assist the schemes already under implementation by MNRE through its State agencies, to develop business models for rural electrification based on renewable energies which are not only commercially viable but easily implementable and thirdly to create a sustainable market for the products and services which get developed for rural electrification under these schemes. The Government of Germany has commissioned an agency called “GIZ” for implementing this project in India and GIZ signed collaborative MOU with MNRE in 2010, in which it was agreed that the main objective of the project “IGEN - RE” would be to create better and sustainable environment to promote renewable energy in rural India based on the local resources available. 2011 census established the fact that almost 40 crore Indians still do not have access to electricity and that more than 60 crore Indians still cook their food on ‘Biomass Stoves’ which are not only in-efficient but are highly pollutant and a hazard to health.
Through its ‘Centre for Management Development’ and ably supported by UREDA and GIZ, UPES conducted this training program for the benefit of Para-Technicians and Akshay Uurja Shop owners of Uttarakhand