Greentech Lead India: Biomass based power generation
projects in India have yielded total installed capacity of 3462 MW which
includes 86 MW in West Bengal have been set up in the country so far, said
Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is promoting setting
up of power generation projects from biomass through various technological
routes such as combustion, gasification and cogeneration.
Various fiscal and financial incentives such as capital
subsidy and fiscal incentives including concessional customs duty on import of
machinery and components, excise duty exemption, accelerated depreciation on
major components and relief from taxes are being provided for setting up of
biomass based power projects.
Besides, preferential tariff is being provided for sale
of power from biomass power projects. Five biomass power projects with a total
capacity of 1.60 MW are at various stages of commissioning in West Bengal,
Abdullah said.
The current availability of biomass in India is estimated
at about 500 millions metric tones per year. Studies
sponsored by the Ministry has estimated surplus biomass availability at about
120 — 150 million metric tones per annum covering agricultural and forestry
residues corresponding to a potential of about 18,000 MW.
This apart, about 5000 MW additional power could be
generated through bagasse based cogeneration in the country’s 550 Sugar mills,
if these sugar mills were to adopt technically and economically optimal levels
of cogeneration for extracting power from the bagasse produced by them,
according to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.