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President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a
Green Partnership today at the White House, prior to the first official
state dinner hosted by the President, in preparation for the Copenhagenclimate change summit
in early December.
This action shows that the White House decided to deal directly with two of the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting nations, India and China, in advance of the global talks, since the United States Congress was unable to pass federal legislation before the meeting that would may have included a binding commitment to clean energy and serious reductions in carbon emissions. Furthermore, with offers of GHG targets having been submitted by nearly all industrialized countries, the chief negotiator for the U.S. reported that the Obama Administration is considering releasing a proposal in the coming days. Thus, the Administration has taken the initiative in this regard, showing that it is a priority for national and economic security and in the process, not letting the health care debate in Congress paralyze its effectiveness.
The overall agreement with India and its various components is reminiscent of the recent partnership established between the U.S and China during President Obama’s trip to that country. Since India is one of its next largest trading partners, it was necessary to develop a collaboration with them as well. Prime Minister Singh and President Obama agreed to strengthen U.S.-India cooperation on clean energy and climate change by launching several key initiatives.
First, a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding to enhance collaboration on energy security, energy efficiency, clean energy, and climate change was agreed upon. Both countries will work in tandem to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies and to enhance cooperation on adaptation to climate change, climate science, and reducing GHG from forests and land use. Second, Prime Minister Singh and President Obama agreed to encourage the mobilization of public and private resources to support a fund that would invest in clean energy projects in India. Third, the Leaders affirmed that the Copenhagen outcome must be comprehensive and cover mitigation, adaptation, finance, and technology. In addition, in all of this, a system indicating full transparency for the implementation of their emissions reductions commitments and appropriate processes was emphasized. Regarding one of these issues, financing in the clean energy sector underwent severe pressure during the recession; however, U.S. cleantech venture capital rose during the third quarter, increasing 46 percent compared to the prior quarter- to $965 million, according to Ernst & Young.
Again, similar to the recent U.S-China Partnership, the two Leaders launched an Indo-U.S. Clean Energy Research and Deployment Initiative, supported by both U.S. and Indian government funding and private sector contributions. This new Initiative will include a Joint Research Center operating in both the U.S. and India to foster innovation and facilitate the deployment of clean energy technologies. The key areas of this Initiative will likely include: energy efficiency, smart grid, next-generation biofuels, carbon capture and storage, solar energy, energy efficient buildings, advanced batteries, sustainable transportation, wind energy, and micro-hydro power. What’s more, the Initiative will allow the two governments to utilize expertise from both countries including government, private industry, and higher education to advance the respective technologies, as the countries have done with nuclear power and weapons. However, the recent Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant radiation leak and the political fallout, twenty years after its first fiasco, does not bode well for this form of energy, which is being considered a component to fund in the emerging U.S. cap-and-trade legislation denoted as the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.
The Initiative’s work will be complemented by two Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) on Solar Energy and Wind Energy. In order to conduct the MOU on Solar Energy, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), which is the nation’s leading institution in this technology, will partner with India’s Solar Energy Center to develop comprehensive nation-wide maps for each country of solar energy prospects. More than two dozen U.S. and Indian cities will partner to pursue solar energy deployment. Prior to the U.S. Partnership announcement, the Indian government approved a $19 billion solar power program with the aim of creating 20 gigawatts of solar energy generation capacity by 2020. The MOU on Wind Energy between NREL and India’s Center for Wind Energy Technology will focus mainly on supporting efforts to develop a low-wind speed turbine technology program.
As the U.S. shifts away from its fossil fuel dominated past and more into the green energy arena, states such as Arizona
face the possibility of being left behind in the clean energy race, as
it simply passes them by. In contrast, states with strong research and
development (R&D) and manufacturing sectors to begin with such as: Michigan, California, Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Ohio all stand to gain as U.S. breeding houses of green energy
technology. No national policy as of yet has formulated an equal
distribution of clean energy stakeholders geographically; thus, it is
up to each individual state to set its own renewable energy portfolio standard and comprehensive suite of business investment incentives. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed numerous measures in the last several months so that California may retain its commanding lead among all U.S. states.
However, at the university level, schools such as the University of
Arizona with active solar energy research programs will benefit from
increased funding and international collaboration, as more grants
become available. For instance, Professor Raymond K. Kostuk and two
Tucson companies, Global Solar and Prism Solar,
have secured a $330,000 three-year grant from the National Science
Foundation to investigate methods to optimize solar energy efficiency
that incorporate low-cost holographic optical collectors with thin-film
solar cell technologies. This fundamental research will investigate
methods of advancing the performance of thin-film photovoltaic cells
by optimizing their response to selected solar spectral bands,
concentration ratios, aperture segmentation, and light trapping through
co-design of the electrical properties of thin-film cells with
holographic optics. Since each particular solar cell material has a
theoretical efficiency limit based on its electronic properties, the
addition of optical concentrators is like cheating, but a very
practical, and possibly an inexpensive way, to boost performance. Many
other cutting-edge R&D projects are on the horizon for the overall
cleantech sector.
The new clean energy partnerships with India and China,
whom are leaders in producing scientists and engineers already, promise
to be bear much fruit for the U.S., as it facilitates the growth of a global clean energy economy that will also reduce GHG emissions.
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