Another productive EU-India knowledge exchange activity took place in 3-6 September 2023, with Dr Stratis Batzelis of the University of Southampton (part of the Imperial College London team) visiting CMERI and Ghoramara island pilot, Indian partners in the RE-EMPOWERED project.
At CMERI, Stratis had the chance to visit several laboratories performing cutting edge research in EVs, aerodynamics and electrochemical storage, and experience in person a series of innovative solar PV configurations, such as solar tree, solar umbrella and solar tractor. He also delivered a talk on solar integration challenges in an audience of about 50 people.
Highlight of the visit was a daytrip to Ghoramara, a small island in the bay of West Bengal with about 3,000 residents. Because of extreme erosion, the island is expected to disappear from the map in a couple of dozens of years, which has left its people without an electric grid and energy access. RE-EMPOWERED will install an 150 kWp PV system to cover basic electricity needs of the 1,000 households in the island, as well as the medical centre, the municipality facilities, the commercial district and an EV (three-wheelers) charging station. Stratis had the chance to see the progress of the works, as well as interact with the residents that eagerly await completion and the change in their lives this will bring.
