Roorkee, 10th October 2019: Hydrokinetic technology is analogous to wind technology and capture the kinetic energy. In order to create awareness about this technology, Department of Hydro and Renewable Energy, IIT Roorkee took the step of organizing India’s first International workshop on Hydrokinetic technology on 10th and 11th October at IIT Roorkee Campus.

The current energy crisis is one of the most widely discussed issue in the present scenario. The increase of conventional fuels to meet the energy demand can increase environmental pollution and Government of India has strict policies toward the environment protection. To contribute for the climate, renewable energy sources were being used to provide the energy security. India has the abundant quantity of renewable sources. Exploitation of hydropower has become the top priority for most of the countries in the world for their climate friendly nature; especially the developing world where large population is still without electricity.

In India, most of the feasible conventional potential head based hydropower sites have been exploited and new kinetic head hydro based technology has been emerged which extract the power from the flowing water streams. This technology works without pounding any civil structure barriers across the natural flow of the river and no effect on the flora and fauna of the natural habitat.

The workshop began on 10th of October 2019 with the inaugural ceremony starting at 11:30 am with a welcome address by the workshop coordinator Prof. R.P Saini and address by the HRED head. The Guest of Honor for this event was Mr. Bruce Bauchmire; Director, Renewable Energy Services, DLZ who also addressed the attendees with a speech. The workshop saw over 45 participants from across the country and the world.

Speaking on the workshop Prof. Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director IIT Roorkee said “In today’s day and age of depleting fossil energy resources, it is imperative to look for alternate solutions. It is a pleasure to host experts from various institutes and abroad to share their ideas on this important subject.”

The workshop was helpful to provide a platform for the people from researchers, manufactures, decision-makers and policy makers to share the common ideas for technology improvement and the formulation of policies.