SCCP II: Clean Energy
India has historically relied heavily on coal, oil, and other fossil fuels to fuel its large, ever-expanding population and acute demand for energy. India began shifting away from traditional energy sources in recent decades to mitigate climate change, have a cleaner environment, and save money in the long-term. In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi strengthened India’s commitment to renewable energy expansion targeting 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022, the world’s largest renewable energy initiative.
The adoption of international energy standards and leading technology is imperative to achieve this goal. ANSI’s U.S.-India SCCP ll focuses on clean energy standardization to accelerate India’s sustainable development, and the SCCP ll team has held two workshops on clean energy workshops that focused on data centers, green buildings, and photovoltaic (PV) technology.
ANSI hosted the Workshop on Clean Energy: Green Buildings and Green Data Centers in Hyderabad, India in July 2019. ANSI worked closely with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)—a U.S. government lab, the International Code Council (ICC), and other U.S. standards developing organizations to lead discussions and capacity building for energy efficiency in green buildings and data centers. Experts presented on prevailing practices in data centers for energy efficiency, relevant standards and codes, smart and green buildings, de-carbonization, and the internet of things in green buildings. Indian stakeholders found all these topics valuable in assisting them with achieving their clean and efficient energy goals while grappling with rapid urbanization. The workshop spotlighted gaps and benchmarked the needs for best practices in data centers, and following the workshop, BIS developed a new Sectional Committee LITD 31 on Cloud computing, information technology, and data centers.
In September-October 2020, ANSI virtually held the Workshop on Clean Energy: Advancing the Growth of Photovoltaic Development in India—a 3-part virtual workshop series that maintained U.S.-Indian standards engagement through the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshop focused on photovoltaic (PV) operability and technology standards with prominent speakers from UL, IEEE, NREL, BIS, and other organizations. Experts presented to 160 participants and introduced Indian stakeholders to key PV standards for operability and durability—notably IEEE 1517 for DER interconnection, leading technology on for troubleshooting and maintaining PV modules, BIS spoke on the Indian PV standards development and status. The sessions culminated with a panel discussion that highlighted how standards and conformity assessment can not only accelerate the development of PV modules, but also optimize them to last longer and ameliorate the barriers that impede the construction of modules in certain areas in India. The various U.S. and Indian speakers complemented one another to underscore areas in which there is an acute need for standardization, such as PV data management, wind damage, water quality for PV treatment, determining a faulty PV module, and more.
In India, the BIS Electrotechnical Technical Department oversees renewable energy standardization for solar and wind power, and the Water Resources Technical Department addresses standardization in hydropower. International standards make the basis for many Indian Standards (IS); however, Indian standards sometimes lag international ones by 4-5 years in the renewable energy sector.
The U.S.-India SCCP II webpage contains the workshop flyer, agenda, presentations, and handouts.
