Mozambique seeks Indian help on renewable energy

Mozambique Thursday sought India's help to develop its renewable energy sector.

Mozamibique Education Minister Zeferino Alexandre Martins, who met Farooq Abdullah, minister for new and renewable energy here, expressed his country's keen interest to rope in India's expertise in the field.

"He (Martins) thanked India for its assistance and hoped that cooperation between the two countries in the field of renewable energy will increase in future," the renewable energy ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, Martins, during his visit to the solar energy centre at Gurgaon, expressed keen interest in the research projects on solar cooling, which are being conducted there.

On India's assistance in the field, Abdullah said a number of new projects would be taken up in African countries, including installation of biomass gasifier systems, solar charging stations and electrification of large number of houses.

India will take up these initiatives as per the bilateral decisions taken recently at the India Africa Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

"He (Abdullah) expressed the hope that Mozambique will benefit from these new initiatives," said the statement, adding that over 250 training programmes in the area of solar energy, biomass, wind energy and small hydropower will be conducted to help African nations develop and deploy renewable energy systems.