India and Belgium are engaged in a dialogue on renewable vitality by way of a Joint Working Group co-chaired by the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). This yr, India and Belgium are set to resume their memorandum of understanding in the sphere of renewable vitality for an additional 5 years.
A delegation of the Walloon (originating from Wallonia) business cluster TWEED took half in a week-long commerce mission to satisfy their Indian counterparts and mentioned market alternatives, information switch and technological partnerships. The Walloon business cluster TWEED congregates greater than 200 stakeholders (from MNCs to SMEs, by way of universities and R&D facilities), with the intention of fostering top quality and industrial-size tasks in the fields of the manufacturing of sustainable vitality.
Between 26th of September and 30th of September, the Trade Commissions of Wallonia in India programmed B2B conferences, brokerage and networking occasions. The delegation began the two-day program in Mumbai devoted to assembly potential Indian firms and massive energy technology teams similar to Reliance or Tata, and then took half in the Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo in Delhi NCR.
Belgium was one of the primary European nations to determine diplomatic relations with India in September 1947, only a month after India gained independence. In 2022, Belgium and India have a good time 75 years of diplomatic relations.
During their final assembly, the 2 nations determined to foster collaboration in three predominant sectors: hydrogen, wind and vitality storage. In these, Belgium has mature and disruptive tasks and worldwide leaders implementing top-notch applied sciences, whereas India has rolled out vital insurance policies and reforms to maintain the expansion of the renewable vitality sector.
Both nations additionally assist the adoption of different clear applied sciences. In Wallonia, Belgium’s French-speaking southern area, the federal government helps quite a few round economy tasks (e.g. with infrastructures devoted to the recycling of PV panels or EV batteries) and the event of new applied sciences similar to PV glass, macro-grid, CO2 seize and utilisation schemes, or power-to-gas.
In these niches, India and Wallonia have already witnessed fruitful collaborations. For instance, John Cockerill (world chief in the manufacturing of alkaline electrolysers with greater than a 3rd of the worldwide market) introduced a JV in India to co-invest in an electrolyser plant. Conversely, an vital Indian conglomerate is working an R&D Centre growing new mechanisms to supply gray Hydrogen in Wallonia.
Wallonia, which boasts a inhabitants of roughly a fifth of Delhi, is understood to be the world’s 2nd area to implement the Industrial Revolution some 150 years in the past. That early revolutionary and pioneering spirit has remained a function that retains it on the forefront of engineering excellence to this present day, and confers it a management position in all kinds of area of interest sectors.
Due to its preferrred location in the center of Europe’s industrial crescent, Wallonia is the proper launching pad for Indian companies trying to develop actions in Europe and profit from an open innovation panorama (e.g. by way of the Greenwin or TWEED innovation clusters). Some have already chosen it as its base, similar to PCBL, Jindal or ELGI Equipment. Beyond the logistical benefit, they typically based mostly their resolution on the sturdy incentives Walloon authorities provide international buyers.(*75*)
The Walloon delegation boasts of a number of pioneering and award-winning multinational firms which have a long-standing affiliation with India.
Along with John Cockerill (the multi-industrial group energetic in hydrogen, Concentrated Solar Power and different sources of vitality), the delegation includes N-Side (knowledge dealing with for the administration of electrical energy grids), CE+T (multi-awarded pioneers who develop inverters and have long-standing collaborations in India, together with an funding in a analysis laboratory), Armacell (manufacturing of polyethylene foams for wind generators, amongst different vitality functions), and chemical compounds firm Dow (experience in technical silicones and coatings enhancing the lifespan of photo voltaic panels in PV farms), Silox (presently investing in India in a battery recycling facility for extraction of non-ferrous metals) and Solvay (world-renowned in the sphere of superior supplies). These are the flag-bearers of Walloon excellence.
Mr. Fabian Scuvie, Senior Energy Specialist at AWEX (Wallonia’s commerce & funding promotion company), accompanied them and introduced Wallonia’s wealthy revolutionary ecosystems in addition to a mapping of totally different worth chains in the renewable vitality sector (firms, analysis & tutorial centres, monetary and governmental our bodies) throughout two seminars in Mumbai and Delhi.
Clearly, collaborations between India and Wallonia aren’t opportunistic in nature however, fairly, the outcome of mutual recognition of their respective excellence. 
