A delegation from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), led by Joint Secretary Shri Dinesh Jagdale, visited Denmark from 6th – 9th September. The purpose of the visit was threefold:
On 8th September, the Joint Working Group meeting was held in Copenhagen and was co-chaired by the Joint Secretary of MNRE and Mr. Martin Hansen, Deputy Director General of DEA. India’s Ambassador to Denmark, H.E. Ms Pooja Kapur, attended and delivered opening remarks, reiterating the focus on green energy, the impressive progress within the Joint Working Group as well as the strong and valuable Green Strategic Partnership between Denmark and India.
In addition, the programme included site visits to Welcon’s offshore wind tower production facility and to Denmark’s National Test Centre for Offshore Wind Energy at Østerild. Meetings at Østerild with DTU Wind (Technical University of Denmark) were very timely and relevant in light of discussions around a national test centre for offshore wind turbines at Dhanuskodi in India.
Lastly, the DEA and MNRE has continously discussed and agreed that stakeholder dialogue with industry is important to ensure a robust regulatory framework is in place in order to attract investment in offshore wind. As such, the DEA hosted and facilitated a stakeholder dialogue meeting between MNRE and several senior executives from the global offshore wind industry. This provided an opportunity to exchange views on offshore wind in India, but also to discuss MNRE’s strategy paper published in July 2022, ahead of the upcoming first tender/auction. Further stakeholder dialogue is expected in the future.
In all, the visit was emphasized as succesful from both sides and the continued collaboration under the Centre of Excellence for Offshore Wind and Renewable Energy All is considered a strong asset for both MNRE and DEA. The Centre of Excellence will, as per agreement, continue to support and contribute to the development of offshore wind in India during the next exciting and key phase of its development.