CM returns after week-long U.S. trip

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has cited the agreements with Tesla Inc. and Iowa State University in the fields of renewable energy storage, the Internet and seed production and food technology as major breakthroughs achieved by him during his week-long tour of the United States.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, had promised to extend technological expertise for the establishment of two solar energy storage units of 4 MW capacity each in Rayalaseema in response to Mr. Naidu’s plea for cooperating in ushering in the next phase of reforms in the energy sector. Another significant accomplishment was Google Inc.’s consent to bring all its technologies to Andhra Pradesh., including the offer to roll out its cutting-edge free space optical communication technology for A.P.’s fibre grid project, for which the California-based Internet giant has already come forward to provide 2000 nodes by the end of December 2017.

Addressing the media at the Interim Government Complex at Velagapudi on Saturday, Mr. Naidu said he had promised to provide business to Tesla and help it in commercialising its innovations.

With Tesla, the Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) intended to set up regional smart grids by initially converting all agricultural pump sets into solar energy-powered ones and eventually export any surplus power into the grid. The existing power lines would be used only for grid management. This experiment was to be replicated in other sectors in the later stages.

‘A revolution’

“The collaboration with Tesla is going to herald a revolution in the Indian energy sector as no State has so far moved in the direction in which A.P. has”, Mr. Naidu asserted, stating that it was his target to reduce the power tariffs.

As far as Andhra Pradesh’s collaboration in the field of seed production and research and facility in seed science was concerned, Mr. Naidu said the MoU with Iowa State University for the establishment of a mega seed park in Kurnool district was a major achievement. Besides, the State government was tying up with the Netherlands-based Wageningen University for promoting new technologies across the agricultural and horticultural spectrum.

Mr. Naidu said Apple CEO Jeff Williams had raised some issues related to incentives and making of spare parts. These were being discussed with the Union government. Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary of the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, had offered to talk to the Union government to take the initiative forward. The Chief Minister said 28 MoUs had been signed with several companies and universities during his visit to the U.S.