Speaking at a workshop entitled “Dedicated Plantation-based Biomass Power and Energy,” Ministry Secretary Deepak Gupta said, “The rising demand for energy on one hand and depletion of fossil fuels and increasing import of coal on the other, has made it necessary for us to look at dedicated plantation-based biomass power and energy as an alternative source.”
As a result, his agency has been taking a close look at the energy potential of surplus biomass harvested from agricultural and forestry residents, Gupta said.
In addition, small megawatt biomass power plants could be set up for feeding power at the tail end of the grid. These plants would ensure power to many villages, he said.
The MNRE has proposed bringing together stakeholders to formulate a strategy to provide sustainable and reliable energy solution at an affordable cost at the grassroots level in an integrated and environment-friendly manner.
Presently, biomass-based power plants are mainly based on surplus agro residues such as rice husk, cotton and arhar stock and other agro and forest residue and availability of biomass has been a major issue to operate the plants to full capacity.
The problem could be over come if these plants were linked with dedicated energy plantations on degraded or waste lands for supplementing the biomass fee stock demand. This would also help in reducing the need for transportation of biomass over long distances, Gupta said.
Gupta’s comments were originally reported in India’s Business-Standard newspaper.
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