IIT Madras Energy Consortium hosts Energy Summit 2023

With Australia being one of earliest partners of Energy Consortium, the next edition of Energy Summit will be hosted by Australia during 2024: Ms. Sarah Kirlew, Australian Consul General

CHENNAI, 6th December 2023: Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ (IIT Madras) Energy Consortium is hosting its annual Energy Summit from 5th to 8th December 2023.

It features participation from Global thought leaders and experts drawn from the industry, academia, policy makers and government agencies that are working towards accelerating the development of technologies to enable energy transition towards a low-carbon future. More than 300 delegates are taking part including over 40 international speakers representing Australia, UK, US, Italy, South Korea, and Japan.

Delivering a virtual address from Dubai on ‘Energy Transition Priorities in the US’ during the plenary session today (6th Dec 2023), Dr. Bhima Sastri, Director (Energy Asset Transformations), Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Department of Energy, US, “The US DoE Energy Earthshots initiative aims to accelerate breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions within the decade. Hydrogen shots seek to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per 1 Kilogram in 1 decade. Carbon management spans a value chain of technologies and infrastructure such as carbon capture, carbon dioxide removal, transport, conversion and permanent storage.”

Further, Dr. Bhima Sastri said, “The US Department of Energy is tasked with accelerating technology through four focus areas – Explore, align, accelerate, and collaborate – via the 17 labs across the country. Some of the outcomes include the ‘Sub-Surface guidance for oil recovery’ through machine learning and ‘Power Plant Cybersecurity.’ The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $12 Billion for carbon management and more than $8 Billion for hydrogen. This has given the opportunity to deploy technologies that have only been researched so far.”

Dr. Bhima Sastri added, “The law has resulted in big investments in carbon management and critical minerals. For a long time, we have been depending on China for critical minerals in key technologies, like MRI. Now, we are trying to revive mines. Retired or retiring coal mines are being repurposed mostly for clean energy technologies.”

Making a major announcement during her address, Ms. Sarah Kirlew, Australian Consul General for Chennai, said, “With Australia being one of the earliest partners of The Energy Consortium, the next edition of The Energy Summit will be held at Australia next year (2024).”

Ms. Sarah Kirlew added, “Australia has natural gifts that allow the country to become a renewable energy superpower. In Terms of the Australia-India partnership, renewable energy is a key focus. Australia and IIT Madras have deep collaborations through various MoUs. Many Australian companies have also set up their research centres.”

The key summit themes for 2023 are:

Ø Energy Storage and Green Hydrogen

Ø Carbon Markets, Energy Economics and Climate Finance

Ø Energy Efficiency, Energy Management and Modelling, Sustainable Buildings

Ø Microgrids, Power conversion systems and Power electronics

Speaking earlier, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “The Energy Summit must look at several challenges into the future. If a technology is introduced, how can it be scaled up, what will be the response and how it can handle disasters. IIT Madras is ‘IITM for all’ and we are open to any industry and stakeholder to join and collaborate with The Energy Consortium.”

Prof. V. Kamakoti added, “Under the ‘Institute of Eminence’ (IoE) scheme, the Institute provided US$ 2 million to The Energy Consortium. Carbon Capture, Green Hydrogen and Battery Research (effectiveness and recycling) are all important areas along with zero emission trucking. In the next 10 years, recycling is going to become more important than even computing jobs. The Institute is looking at such projects under our ‘Waste to Wealth’ agenda.”

The important outcomes from Energy Summit 2023 include:

Ø Launch of the CO2 capture demonstrator, to aid industries and researchers demonstrate technology scale-up

Ø Increasing collaboration with more academic and industrial partners to address the technology transition for decarbonisation goals of the government.

Ø Launch of Energy Audit app for use by MSME, Energy auditors and other industries

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Highlighting the importance of the event, Prof. Satyanarayanan Seshadri, Convenor, Energy Summit 2023, said, “Developing resilience in our energy systems and addressing holistic development of technologies is imperative. This can only be achieved by collective action. The Energy Summit at IITM is one of the major global platform that is driving this.”

Other speakers include Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras.

A Special Magazine Issue ‘Path to Decarbonization’, which comprises a series of articles by energy experts from academia, industry and government, was unveiled on the occasion. A CO2 capture pilot demonstrator developed by the Energy Consortium as part of the Institute of Eminence Center of Excellence project was also unveiled on the occasion.

There were also two high powered panels that deliberated ‘Alternate fuels and green H2’ and ‘Importance of Digitalization in energy transition’. multiple invited presentations, flash talks and posters on cutting-edge research from academia and industry were also presented on the occasion.

ABOUT IIT MADRAS

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an ‘Institute of National Importance.’ The activities of the Institute in various fields of Science and Technology are carried out in 17 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary research academic centres. The Institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to B.Tech., M.Sc., M.B.A., M.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D., degrees in a variety of specialisations. IITM is a residential institute with more than 600 faculty and 9,500 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled here. IITM fosters an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell.

Recognized as an Institution of Eminence (IoE) in 2019, IITM has been ranked No.1 in the ‘Overall’ Category for the fifth consecutive year in India Ranking 2023 released by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. The Institute has also been ranked No.1 in the ‘Engineering Institutions’ category in the same Rankings for eight consecutive years – from 2016 to 2023. It was also adjudged as the ‘Top innovative Institution’ in the country in Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) in 2019, 2020 and 2021. ARIIA Ranking was launched by the Innovation Cell of Ministry of Education.

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ABOUT ENERGY CONSORTIUM

The Energy Consortium is an umbrella initiative at IIT Madras that spans the whole spectrum of research in energy generation, storage, conversion, and distribution. We are an industry-academia-government collaborative effort established with the aim of accelerating the development of technologies that enable the transition toward a low-carbon future. The core expertise areas at the consortium include carbon capture and storage, gas hydrates, coal and biomass conversion to useful chemicals, renewable energy systems including applications in electrolyzer technologies for CO2 conversion and green hydrogen, energy storage technologies beyond lithium, and distributed energy management including for AC and DC microgrids. We have active participation from more than 50 IIT Madras faculty, with significant technology expertise and demonstrated contributions on the world stage. In addition, we have over 250 postgraduate students (PhD and MS) and about 20-30 post-doctoral fellows working in various domains related to energy research. Energy Consortium has global energy majors including Shell and Baker Hughes as well as the Energy vertical of NITI Aayog amongst our advisory board members.