US-India Energy Storage Task Force Begins Operations

New Delhi, Dec 11 (PTI) US-India Energy Storage Task Force, a public-private initiative formed to boost storage technologies in the US and India, commenced operations on Monday, a statement said.

The US-India Energy Storage Task Force was first announced at the October 2022 Ministerial meeting of the US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP) held between Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

The public-private US-India Energy Storage Task Force (ESTF) was established by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Ministry of Power (MOP).

India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), a leading industry alliance focused on the development of advanced energy storage, green hydrogen, and e-mobility technologies in India, has been appointed as the Secretariat.

The US-India Energy Storage Task Force aims to facilitate an ongoing and meaningful dialogue among US and Indian government officials, industry representatives, and other stakeholders to scale up and accelerate the deployment of Energy Storage technologies.

The ESTF will work towards further advancing the goals of the SCEP, including developing and deploying emerging clean energy technologies to decarbonize the energy sector.

The SCEP is successfully strengthening energy security, creating opportunities for clean energy innovation, addressing climate change, and creating employment generation opportunities for both India and the US.

Rakesh Kumar, Secretary, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Ministry of Power is the Co-chair the lead the task force from India side.

"The US-India ESTF by synergizing the efforts and resources of two countries would help India in achieving clean energy transition and targeted net zero emission by 2070,” Kumar said. “It aims at providing reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy storage solutions for the smooth integration of continuous and growing large scale planned RE capacity addition for greening of power sector in the country," he added.