Bhubaneswar: IIT, Bhubaneswar plans to set up an Energy Studies Centre in order to encourage research in power sector, said its Dean (Academics) Professor Ganapati Panda.

"We are planning to set up the Energy Studies Centre at the IIT, Bhubaneswar at an investment of about Rs 200 crore," Panda revealed while addressing a National Conference on Advances in Electrical Power and Energy System organised by Sikshya O Anusandhan University (SOA) here on Friday.

Panda's response came in reply to a series of speakers stressing on the lack of adequate research in energy sector.

While USA and Japan had been stressing on the research in energy sector, India seemed to be sitting idle.

"The policy makers should give priority to research on alternative energy sources instead of harping on traditional thermal power generation," said Professor P K Dash of the SOA university adding that steps must be taken to ensure that the nation generate clean and green energy.

Inaugurating the seminar, Rabindra Satpathy, president of Solar Energy, Reliance Industries Limited, said that the challenge before the today's engineers was to reduce the cost of generation of solar power.

While thermal power was being generated at the cost of Rs 4 per unit, Rs 12 to Rs 14 was required for generating an unit of solar energy.SOA university vice-chancellor M P Jain and others also spoke on the occasion.

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