The Hindu : Business : India to take part in Future Gen project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 03, 2006

Business

Business

India to take part in Future Gen project

Special Correspondent

Place for India in steering committee

NEW DELHI: India has accepted the U.S. government's invitation to take part in the billion dollar Future Gen project, aimed at creating the world's first zero-emissions fossil fuel plant. According to the fact sheet on the Indo-U.S. Energy dialogue released here on Thursday, India will contribute $10 million while the U.S. government and industry are responsible for funding the balance required for the project.

The joint statement issued after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George Bush also says India will participate in the government steering committee of this initiative.

An international public-private partnership, Future Gen is an initiative to build the world's first integrated sequestration and hydrogen production research power plant. Indian companies are expected to participate in the private sector segment of the projects. The fact sheet says it will "draw upon the best scientific talent to pursue an innovative showcase project focused on the design, construction and operation of a technically cutting edge power plant.''

As for India's participation in the multi-billion dollar International Thermonuclear Energy Research (ITER), the joint statement says it is an important step towards the common goal of full nuclear energy cooperation. ITER is an international project that seeks to make use of fusion energy for electricity production a reality. The main ITER facility would be in Cadarache, France, and all partners will participate in its construction, research and development. India was invited on December 6, 2005 to join the initiative as a full partner by the U.S. and its other partners — the European Union, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China — at the negotiations meeting in Jeju in South Korea. "India will join the international team that will work on the project,'' it is stated.

As part of the Indo-U.S. energy dialogue, India has also sought membership in the Integrated Ocean Development Programme (IODP), an international drilling programme for scientific deep sea research led by Japan and the U.S. It aims to study the unknown deep biosphere by studying core samples and monitoring boreholes, an important first step towards harnessing as hydrates as a source of energy.

The National Gas Hydrate Progam has identified specific areas in Indian deep sea waters for conducting further geo-scientific surveys.

It is believed that commercial exploitation of gas hydrates may start some time in the period 2015-20.

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