Relevance: Prelims
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy awarded Grants to the awardees of the second round of PACEsetter fund programme in a ceremony organised by the Ministry yesterday. ShriAnand Kumar, Secretary, MNRE and Mr. Kenneth Ian Juster, the U.S. Ambassador to India co-chaired the felicitation ceremony.
In the second round of awards, a total of 168 Expressions of Interest were received. Out of these, four projects were selected for award of grants. The awardees include Society for Economic and Social Studies, New Delhi, Customized Energy Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., Pune, The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and RaghavendraSuntech Systems Pvt Ltd (RSSPL), Bengaluru.
Stressing on the importance of access to energy for all, the U.S. Ambassador said that innovation in off-grid and clean energy will improve energy access. Secretary, MNRE appreciated the impact that the awarded projects would have on the common man. He also suggested that innovation realized through such projects could be replicated in other developing countries.
Background:
The PACEsetter fund was constituted by India and the USA in 2015 as a joint fund to provide early-stage grant funding to accelerate the commercialization of innovative off-grid clean energy products, systems, and business models.
The mission of the PACEsetter Fund is to accelerate the commercialization of innovative off-grid clean energy access solutions by providing early-stage grant funding that would allow businesses to develop and test innovative products, business models and systems. The Fund’s main purpose is to improve the viability of off-grid renewable energy businesses that sell small scale (under 1 megawatt) clean energy systems to individuals and communities without access to grid connected power or with limited/intermittent access. (less than 8 hours per day).