With the Indian economy growing by leaps and bounds yet hampered by regular power shortages and blackouts, Indian electricity regulators are in a tough spot. How to wring more electricity from very limited infrastructure? The answer lies in energy efficiency, and through collaborations with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory India is hoping to learn from California’s successes in implementing energy efficiency and demand-side management to meet energy demand.

Three solid days of talks on feed-in tariffs, decoupling and demand-side management may not sound like exciting stuff to most people, but to certain a group of visitors from India, such topics could not be more welcome. This week, a 20-member delegation, including representatives of electricity regulatory commissions of 13 of India’s 28 states, visited Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to learn about California’s leading efforts on energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Electricity in India can be a dicey proposition. Half the population lacks access or is too poor to afford it. The other half is using so much that demand far outstrips supply, resulting in daily power outages. And with a growing middle class buying more TVs, air conditioners and the like, the situation will only get worse. As chaotic as things are, there is a solution: simple energy efficiency measures, according to a new report from Berkeley Lab, can eliminate the electricity deficit as early as 2013.

The fact that glaciers in the Himalayan mountains are thinning is not disputed. However, few researchers have attempted to rigorously examine and quantify the causes. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Surabi Menon and her collaborators found that airborne black carbon aerosols, or soot, from India is a major contributor to the decline in snow and ice cover on the glaciers.

India may rank only a distant fourth in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, behind China, the United States and Russia, but its rapid economic growth rate coupled with aging and inefficient energy infrastructure suggest dire environmental consequences if “business as usual” continues. That’s why experts from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have been working to expand collaborations with India on energy efficiency.