- Monday, December 11, 2023
‘India has the advantage of scale, both geologically and in terms of the number of people’
By: Pramod Thomas
INDIA and the UK are working closely on energy security, a senior British minister said on Friday (21).
Britain’s energy security and net zero minister Grant Shapps said that it was important for India, with its “tremendous ambition”, to have energy security to realise its potential.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the G20 14th clean energy ministerial meeting and 8th mission innovation meeting in Goa.
Shapps revealed that he speaks to his Indian counterpart, power and renewable energy minister R K Singh on a regular basis.
“He (Singh) is coming to London as my guest next….We work very closely on energy security. It is important (for) India, with tremendous ambition, to reach its potential, it has to have security and supply of energy,” he said.
India has the advantage of scale, both geologically and in terms of the number of people, he said, adding, “this means the new markets, new ideas can be tested on vast scale in India.”
“The UK has advantage with the energy and particularly the transition. For example having built the world’s largest offshore wind farm….There is lot to learn from each other in every direction,” Shapps said.
Both countries have to make transition to green energy and are working together on a whole range of joint projects, the minister added.
He termed Tata Group’s $4 million investment in a gigafactory for the production of electric car batteries in the UK as a ‘massive investment’.
On G20 meetings, he said it was very important for the member countries to work together on energy security.
(PTI)
