Energy is vital for our day to day existence. It directly reflects the well-being and prosperity of a nation and is the key factor to our economic growth. With the depleting fossil fuel reserves, there is a need to look for alternate fuels so as to meet the ever increasing demand for energy with each passing year.
Technological interventions that would enable us to increase the share of renewable energy and lessen the use of natural resources through increased conservation is the need of the hour. Employing the natural resources to meet the growing demand for energy in a safe and environmentally responsible manner is the key challenge. We should be committed to protect both the people and the environment while utilizing the resources and simultaneously contribute towards energy security as well as economic development. School of Energy Science and Engineering at IIT Guwahati, founded in the year 2004 has been an effort to contribute to the above cause. Being located in Guwahati, the gateway to the North-East India, it envisions to cater to the energy needs of the entire region academically, technologically and intellectually. The North-Eastern region, comprising of eight states including Assam, is blessed with a huge hydro potential and has abundant resources of biomass apart from coal, oil and gas. Currently the School is focusing on (i) Energy generation (through thermochemical route, biochemical route, biofuel, fuel cell, solar, catalyst development and solar-wind hybrid), (ii) Energy storage (Li-ion Battery, compressed air and metal hydride) (iii) Energy transmission (nano-fluid, metamaterials) and (iv) development of integrated systems and innovative products. The School is actively participating in Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Rastriya Avishkar Abhiyan, and Uchhatar Avishkar Abhiyan and aims to significantly contribute to Make in India, Skill India, Imprint India, Solar Mission, GIAN and other complementary initiatives of the Govt. of India. The School runs two academic programs: PhD and MS by Research. At present, there are 30 MS(R) students and 80 PhD students working on various aspects of energy research. The School foresees to develop itself as an energy hub with advance state-of-art facility in cutting edge research for generating human resources and laboratory-to-field technology.
The vision of the School is to allow academicians and researchers from different disciplines from both within and outside the institute to meet on a common platform and work unitedly to find solutions to meet the energy demand of different sectors utilizing the renewable resources available in abundance in a holistic manner. I welcome all to be a part of our endeavor by joining the School at either of the two academic programs, through academic and research collaboration, through consultancy or approaching us on any relevant issue for that matter. Our success lies in finding solutions for energy security locally, regionally, nationally and globally by striving unitedly