Ministry of Power and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy have jointly launched a National Mission to quickly identify emerging technologies in the power sector and develop them indigenously, at scale, for deployment within and outside India.
The National Mission, titled “Mission on Advanced and High-Impact Research (MAHIR)” aims to facilitate indigenous research, development and demonstration of the latest and emerging technologies in the power sector. By identifying emerging technologies and taking them to the implementation stage, the Mission seeks to leverage them as the main fuel for future economic growth and thus make India a manufacturing hub of the world.
Funding
The Mission will be funded by pooling financial resources of the Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the Central Public Sector Enterprises under the two Ministries. Any additional funding needed will be mobilized from Government of India’s budgetary resources.
Tenure
Planned for an initial period of five years from 2023-24 to 2027-28, the Mission will follow the technology life cycle approach of Idea to Product.
Mission objectives
Some of the key objectives of the Mission are:
- To identify emerging technologies and areas of future relevance for the Global Power Sector and take up indigenous end-to-end development of relevant technologies
- To provide a common platform for Power Sector Stakeholders for collective brainstorming, synergetic technology development and devise pathways for smooth transfer of technology
- To support pilot projects of indigenous technologies (developed especially by Indian Start-ups) and facilitate their commercialization
Initial areas of research
To begin with, the following eight areas are identified for research:
- Alternatives to Lithium-Ion storage batteries
- Modifying electric cookers / pans to suit Indian cooking methods
- Green hydrogen for mobility (High Efficiency Fuel Cell)
- Carbon capture
- Geo-thermal energy
- Solid state refrigeration.
- Nano technology for EV battery
- Indigenous CRGO technology
Mission structure
The Mission will have a two-tier structure – a Technical Scoping Committee and an Apex Committee.
The Technical Scoping Committee, chaired by the Chairperson of Central Electricity Authority, will identify ongoing and emerging research areas globally, recommend potential technologies for development under the Mission, justify the techno-economic advantages, provide research outlines, and conduct periodic monitoring of approved research projects.
The Apex Committee, chaired by the Union Minister for Power & New and Renewable Energy will deliberate on the technology and products to be developed and approve the research proposals. The Apex committee will look also into international collaborations.
Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) will provide all necessary secretarial assistance to the Apex Committee and Technical Scoping Committee.
Scope of the Mission
Under the Mission, once research areas are identified and approved by the Apex Committee, the proposals for outcome-linked funding will be invited from companies / organizations across the globe. The selection of the proposal shall be done through Quality cum Cost-Based Selection (QCBS) basis. The organizations of the Ministries may also co-develop the technologies with the selected Research Agency. The IPR of the technology developed would be shared by the Government of India and the Research Agency.
Featured photograph is a generic image showing cold-rolled grain oriented (CRGO) steel — a key manufacturing input for transformers. Indigenous development of CRGO production technology has been identified in the initial eight research areas of MAHIR.
