India?s 650 districts with an average of three biomass power plants of 10 mw in each, could generate 5,850 mw of power. However, during the last 10 years, only 656 mw of capacity were commissioned. These plants could provide a viable and sustainable answer to the never-ending problem of poverty and unemployment in India?s villages. A great plus is that technology to generate electricity from biomass, the non-fossilised raw animal or plant material is readily available at an affordable cost.
Marginalised farm workers can also generate biomass through the cultivation of high calorific value non-edible plants like Juliflora on barren lands. The electricity distributed locally would avoid the huge transmission & distribution losses incurred by power utilities. This would ease the stress on coal-fired power plants, the biggest cause of climate change on earth. Also, a 10 mw biomass power plant, which may need an investment of Rs 50-60 crore, can employ over 2,000 families in the collection, transportation, cutting and chipping of biomass, or in cultivating and managing the energy plantations. A government which spends crores to emancipate villagers can divert a minuscule percentage of that money to support biomass power plants. These, coupled with small hydro, solar and wind turbines, wherever feasible, can generate enough electricity to meet the entire needs of a small group of villages, sufficient even to run small and micro industrial units.
State power utilities? unviable tariff rates form a main reason for the slow take-off of biomass-based power plants in the country, even though the relevant entrepreneurs, technologies, equipment and finance are already in place. Planners of rural development could consider the biomass power plant route for rural employment and electrification. The Union ministry of new and renewable energy has initiated a move to appoint an expert team to review the performance of the grid-connected biomass-based power plants in the country. It has to identify barriers and novel practices; review the policy framework, performance and fuel supply linkages of selected power plants, as well as actual usage of biomass and fossil fuels.
joseph.vackayil@expressindia.com