A project led by Heriot-Watt University to provide low-cost renewable energy to rural areas of India has won government funding.
Developing fuel cells and researching how to make rural more living sustainable are two challenges currently being tackled together by the UK and Indian governments.
The Bridging the Urban & Rural Divide (BURD) projects address the research challenges of making living rurally a sustainable option, a topic that was agreed to be of importance to both countries.
The BURD panel held recently in London was chaired by Dr Chidambaram, Principal Science Advisor to the Government of India. Over £7 million from Research Councils UK, with matched resources from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in India, will fund five successful projects including that led by Heriot-Watt University.
The Heriot-Watt University project is for the Development and Integration of Biomass and Concentrating Photovoltaic System for Rural and Urban Energy Bridge: BioCPV. The project is in partnership with Visva-Bharati University in India.
The aim is to develop an integrated system of solar fuel cell, biomass and waste power generation and hydrogen generation and storage to provide low-cost integrated renewable energy to rural areas.