News: Recently, a joint virtual meeting was held between INDIA and the USA to launch the revamped U.S.-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP). Read News Here.
Let’s Understand in Simple Language:
A Virtual joint ministerial meeting was held between the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri and the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. The meeting was held to launch the revamped U.S.-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP). It was decided in the meeting that the two countries will add a fifth pillar on Emerging Fuels. This indicates a joint determination to promote clean energy fuels.
This they say as the fifth pillar because both the countries are indulged in areas like power and energy efficiency, oil and gas, renewable energy, and sustainable growth. With the addition of clean energy fuels, India and the U.S. have agreed to expand their energy partnership to the list of areas of cooperation.
The revamped clean energy partnership will intensify the efforts from both sides to take advantage of the complementarities that exist between the US and India – advanced US technologies and rapidly growing India’s energy market, for a win-win situation through a cleaner energy route with low carbon pathways.
A new India-US Task Force on Biofuels was also announced to build on the scope of work on cooperation in the biofuels sector.
Both sides will strengthen the electric grid in India to support large-scale integration of renewables, including through smart grids, energy storage, flexible resources, and distributed energy resources, and ensure reliable and resilient grid operations, as well as promoting energy efficiency and conservation measures.
The Gas Task Force was also renamed the India-US Low Emissions Gas Task Force. Both countries also agreed to work towards developing better understandings on methane abetment under this Task Force.
About Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP):
The revamped US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP) was launched on 9 September 2021. The SCEP is launched in accordance with U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden at the Leaders Summit on Climate held in April 2021.
The SCEP organizes inter-governmental engagement across five pillars of cooperation: (1) Power and Energy Efficiency; (2); Responsible Oil and Gas; (3) Renewable Energy; (4) Sustainable Growth and (5) Emerging Fuels.
Questions related to topic for UPSC:
Q. Explain the significance of access to clean energy for developing countries like India.?
Q. Recently, India and the USA have for building cooperation in various fields. Discuss the same in the context of the five pillars of cooperation.
Q. With reference to the US- India strategic clean energy partnership (SCEP) consider the following statements:
- SCEP organises inter-governmental engagement across five pillars of cooperation.
- SCEP places greater emphasis on electrification and decarbonizationof processes and end users.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only.
C. Both
D. None
Ans. C. Both
Q. Consider the following statements regarding the Conventional source of energy:
I. The conventional sources of energy are fossil fuels which took millions of years for the formation of fossil fuels; hence they are limited and non-renewable.
II. Fossils are remains of organisms that lived in the past and fossil fuels are plants that got buried under the earth that became rock over years.
Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?
a. Only I
b. Only II
c. Both I and II
d. Neither I nor II
Ans: c
Q. Which of the following statements is not true regarding fossils fuel?
a. Coal is solid and it is mined and then transported in trucks and trains.
b. Compressed Natural Gas is also used for cooking purposes at home.
c. Oil is liquid that is pumped out from the ground after drilling a well. It is sent to faraway places in oil tankers or pipelines.
d. Natural gas is a mixture of gases. The gas we use for cooking which comes in cylinders is LPG or Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
Ans: b
Q. Consider the following statements regarding the energy from biomass:
I. Biomass is plant matter produced as a result of photosynthesis and some of it can be burnt to provide heat, for example, wood, agricultural waste.
II. Biomass can also be used for power generation or converted into alcohol (liquid or methane gas) to be used as fuel.
III. Biomass is renewable energy and shall be available as long as plants grow on earth.
Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?
a. Only I
b. I and II
c. I and III
d. All of the above
Ans: d
Q. Consider the following statements regarding the bio-fuel:
I. Organic wastes, sewage, and any other solid biomass can be converted by bacteria into biofuels such as biogas.
II. Biogas digesters are large vessels in which organic wastes (plants and animals waste) are made to undergo bacterial fermentation and produce biogas that can be used for heating and cooking.
III. Methane can be obtained by anaerobic (in absence of air) digestion of manure and sludge of sewage treatment units by means of anaerobic bacteria.
Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?
a. Only I
b. I and II
c. I and III
d. All of the above
Ans: d
Q. Consider the following statements regarding the promotion of Solar Energy in India:
I. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) have initiated schemes and incentives-like subsidy, easy loan, concessional duty on raw material imports, excise duty exemption on certain devices/systems, etc. to encourage and use of solar energy systems.
II. The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) provides financial helps for the purchase of PV (Photovoltaic) systems.
III. Government is planning to set up a 10 million square meters solar collector area by 2022.
Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?
a. Only I
b. I and II
c. I and III
d. All of the above
Ans: d
Q. Consider the following statements regarding the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) of India:
I. Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is an agency of the Government of India, under the Ministry of Power created in March 2002 under the provision of the Energy Conservation Act.
II. The agency’s function is to develop programs that will increase the conservation and efficient use of energy in India.
III. The government has proposed to make it mandatory or compulsory for appliances in India to have ratings by the BEE starting in January 2010.
Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?
a. Only I
b. I and II
c. I and III
d. All of the above
Ans: d
More on this website for your UPSC Preparation:
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: https://currentaffairsupsc.in/international-relations/
POLITY: https://currentaffairsupsc.in/polity/
ECONOMICS: https://currentaffairsupsc.in/economics/
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: https://currentaffairsupsc.in/science-technology/
ENVIRONMENT & ECO.: https://currentaffairsupsc.in/environment-ecology-and-biodiversity/
HISTORY: https://currentaffairsupsc.in/history/
MISC: https://currentaffairsupsc.in/misc/