The agreement was signed by Mr Deepak Gupta, Secretary to the Government of India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and Michael Russell, the Scottish Government's Minister for External Affairs.
The MoU, which was facilitated by Scotland's international economic development agency Scottish Development International (SDI), highlights both countries' commitment to jointly developing new renewables technology and encouraging innovation throughout their low carbon energy sectors.
The agreement will boost collaboration between Indian and Scottish Universities and Research institutes and will leverage Scotland's world class energy research, development and deployment expertise in tidal and wave power. The European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, for example, is the only facility of its kind in the world and marine energy experts from around the world come to Scotland to test new technologies.
Meanwhile, Scotland is also leading research into second generation biofuels, also of great potential to India given its large agriculture industry.
"We hold a world leading position in the development of offshore wind with the Beatrice offshore wind demonstrator turbines located in the Moray Firth. In addition, the development and deployment of marine energy is supported by the most generous support for commercially deployed marine renewables projects in the UK. Our leadership and innovation in this area can help India achieve its renewables goals, while Scottish organisations benefit from India's own expertise," said Michael Russell.
Today's signing forms an important part of the Scottish Government's Minister for External Affairs’ week-long visit to India to build business and cultural links between the two countries. India is an attractive market for Scottish companies and an important existing investor in Scotland, while India’s coastline of over 7000 km offers huge potential for offshore wind energy. With Scotland’s help, India may be able to generate almost five times more wind energy capacity than the government's estimate by 2030, if it is able to tap this potential.
Like India, Scotland also has an abundance of natural resources. It is estimated that Scotland has 25% of Europe's tidal resource, a quarter of its offshore wind resource and 10% of its wave potential.
In Scotland, the practical execution of this long-term partnership will be led by the groundbreaking Energy Technology Partnership (ETP), which will coordinate the wealth of Scottish bodies undertaking research and development in renewables and match-make them with Indian counterparts.
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