PFC, IISc tie up for new energy research facility

Central PSU Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC) has partnered with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to establish a new facility to house the Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research (ICER).

The state-of-the-art building, estimated to cost Rs 60 crore and to be constructed over two years, will foster fundamental and applied research across energy-related areas with a special focus on green hydrogen generation, IISc said. It will house labs, seminar rooms, classrooms, faculty rooms and facilities for developing energy-related products and prototypes.

“The support from PFC comes at an opportune time when countries across the globe are focusing on net zero technologies to mitigate the environmental impact of conventional energy generation,” IISc said.

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ICER, conceived in 2012, pursues socially relevant research in line with the Union Government’s national missions. The centre’s ongoing research on generating green hydrogen from biomass has reached the stage of real-world demonstration in fuel cell buses, IISc said.

The facility is expected to accelerate advanced research on indigenous green hydrogen and net zero technologies.

PFC and IISc entered a formal agreement on the new facility on Tuesday, in the presence of Ravinder Singh Dhillon, CMD, PFC, and Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc.

“With climate change accelerating at an alarming pace, it is imperative for academia and industry to join hands and develop novel solutions that can help us achieve net zero emissions,” Prof Rangarajan said.

The building, coming up at IISc, will also support PhD and Master’s programmes and collaborative academic and industrial programmes.