Nepal is set to host a three-day international conference on renewable energy technology to raise awareness about the growing sector, organizers said Wednesday.
The 5th International Conference on Developments on Renewable Energy Technology on March 29-31 will help promote renewable energy technology in Nepal, which is yet to fully exploit its natural resources, said Ramesh Kumar Maskey, the chair of the organizing committee.
“Our ancestors used natural resources such as water and sun to their advantage. But we seem to have moved towards energy sources that are not sustainable,” he told Anadolu Agency.
“We will hold discussions on best ways to utilize water, sun and air to harness energy. We will discuss new technologies and share knowledge,” he said.
Giriraj Mani Pokharel, Nepal’s minister of science and technology and Barsha Man Pun, minister of energy, will jointly inaugurate the conference on Thursday.
Around 300 participants including industry experts, engineers, academics and researchers from 25 countries will attend the conference at a five-star hotel in Kathmandu.
Ram Manohar Shrestha, Nepal’s foremost energy expert and a retired professor at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand and Rezwan Khan, a professor at a university in Bangladesh, are the keynote speakers of the event.
Sixteen sessions will cover issues such as hybrid energy technology, and the social impact of renewable technology.
Experts in the panel include Dipak Gyawali, Nepal’s former water resources minister, Ben Campbell, an anthropologist at Durham University, Ajaya Dixit, a water resource expert and Pitamber Sharma, a Nepali scholar on urban development.
The event is supported by Kathmandu University, German aid group GiZ, WWF, and Loughborough University, among others.
By Deepak Adhikari in Kathmandu, Nepal
Anadolu Agency
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