Establishment of Norway- Sri Lanka research consortium on Clean Energy Technologies
Both Norway and Sri Lanka have committed to a decrease in CO2 emission, and both have long term plans to increase the share of clean energy technologies to tackle future energy demands. Research and higher education institutions and research groups in Norway and Sri Lanka have greater focus on clean energy technologies, and public interest and private investments are on the rise in both countries.
Under the NORPART (Norwegian Partnership Programme for Global Academic Cooperation) program managed by the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SIU), Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) has recently signed a MoU on higher education and research collaboration with University of Jaffna (UoJ), Sri Lanka in clean energy technologies. Other institutions, such as the University of Bergen (UiB) and the University of Agder (UoA) from Norway and the University of Peradeniya (UoP) from Sri Lanka are also included as partners in this project. For research on innovative clean energy technologies to result in solutions for practical applications, it is of utmost importance that the private sector and the research institutions work together. In 2017, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Colombo funded a new project led by HVL to establish a research consortium on clean energy technologies that includes both higher education and research institutions and the private sector in Norway and Sri Lanka. As the first step to achieve this goal, a Norwegian-Sri Lankan Clean Energy Seminar is arranged in Colombo on 9 May 2018, in collaboration with Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association (SLEMA) bringing together the academia and the private sector.
The main objectives of this clean energy seminar are four-fold:
1. To establish an arena to present the Norwegian and Sri Lankan private sector working on clean energy technologies such as solar, wind and hydrogen
2. To facilitate a meeting place for the academia and private sector in the field of clean energy technologies from both countries that would lead to the establishment of a sustainable research consortium
3. To obtain in-depth knowledge on the energy regulative measures and policies in Sri Lanka
4. To facilitate and motivate the private sector and Universities from Norway and Sri Lanka to initiate future partnerships including joint-ventures