The recent visit of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to India has facilitated a dialogue between the state governments of New Jersey and Telangana to strengthen cleantech cooperation between the two regions.

The development took place during the Sustainability Innovation Summit based on the theme of renewable energy in Hyderabad, which was organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Telangana’s Energy Department.

Rajiv Reddy, chairman southern council, ICC, said, “Telangana has a vast solar potential estimated at 20.41 GW and a wind energy potential of 4.2 GW. Telangana has a total installed capacity of 4,036 MW renewable energy power, including solar energy at 3,583 MW and wind energy of 128 MW besides contribution from other renewable energy sources. The state has adopted decentralized distributed solar installation projects, as opposed to the solar park model. The state had encouraged projects across over 180 locations, instead of concentration of projects at one location as in solar parks.”

The agreement included a wide range of sectors in which the two states hope to bolster public and private sector collaboration, including cleantech cooperation.

Supported by the U.S. Department of State and several U.S. foundations, the U.S.-India and Urban Initiative have facilitated several subnational energy partnerships between the two countries including an agreement for energy cooperation between the state governments of Gujarat and Colorado in September 2018 and one between Utah and Rajasthan in August 2019.

Speaking to Mercom, Naveen Madishetty, the region head of the ICC Southern Council, said, “Although the focus was on clean energy, the state of New Jersey also wants to transfer technology to Telangana and wants to involve universities and companies of the United States.  Through the agreement, New Jersey wants to give access to U.S. companies.”

When asked about the next step, he said that the stakeholders and delegates from the energy department of Telangana had been invited to New Jersey.

Last month, the Chief Minister of Telangana, K. Chandrashekar Rao, proposed that 1 GW of solar projects be developed in the state to make affordable solar PV power accessible for irrigation programs.

According to Mercom’s India Solar project tracker, Telangana has large-scale solar of 3.45 GW in operations, and 236 MW under development pipeline.

Image credit: Indian Chamber of Commerce