The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, through its Industrial Research and Development (IRD) Unit has been carrying out research in the field of energy ecosystems. Many government and non-government organisations working in the area of energy have come forward to establish their Centres of Excellence (CoE) at IIT Delhi due to its scientists' deep technology research outcome in the energy domain.
As per an IIT Delhi statement, the institute has filed over 45 patents in the last five years in the thematic area of harnessing solar energy for different societal applications. These technologies can accelerate the realisation of the ‘Pradhan Mantri Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahabhiyaan- PM KUSUM scheme of government of India, which has a financial outlay of around 30,000 crore and some technologies aim at realising the vision of Atma Nirbhar Bharat. One of the research area at IIT Delhi, as per the statement, is also the development of battery operated vehicles.
“IIT Delhi has also been doing pioneering work in the area of biogas research and as a success story the institute has developed the country's first biogas-based car, which has run more than 50,000 kilometres on biogas in the last 6 years,” the statement added.
Professor V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi in the statement added: “To make the country a CO2 [carbon dioxide] minimal nation while ensuring energy security, we need to migrate from conventional energy sources to renewable and sustainable alternatives. Since these sources of energy are mostly intermittent in nature, the need of energy storage research also becomes very vital. On the other hand, the need for energy security in the mobility domain compels us to quickly move from gasoline based IC (Internal Combustion) engines to either alternative fuel-based engines or Electric Vehicles.”
Professor SK Khare, Dean, Research and Development said: “At IIT Delhi, we have also undertaken research in the grand challenges mode to address the future sustainable energy needs. The most notable one in the energy domain is to convert the CO2 to value added products. Also, the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Infrastructure has ventured to achieve a net zero energy consumption building using IoT (Internet of Things) based data driven algorithms and low-cost retrofitted solutions.”
