Chhattisgarh achieved 228 MW of biomass power generation as on November 2017, the Central Government has informed.
The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set a target of installing 10 GW power capacity from biomass by 2022 in the country. So far about 8.2 GW biomass power projects have already been set up in the country.
Notably, Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company ltd (CSPGCl) is among 19 power generation utilities in the country advised by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to get post harvest crop residue collected and use it as a 'bio-mass’ fuel to generate power instead of farmers burning them on the fields and causing pollution.
The CEA in its Advisory informed that NTPC has successfully demonstrated Co-firing of 7 per cent biomass pellets with coal at its Dadri power plant. “This can be replicated in other coal fired power plants having bowl mills, vertical roller mills and beater mills,” it informed.
Notably, the state-owned Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) in January this year had also announced that it will be purchasing 50 MW of electricity from bio-mass power producers in the State.
The company would sign a 20-year agreement with the power producers, officials stated.
Chhattisgarh had biomass projects generating a total of 249 MW of power as on March 31, 2015.
The total power generation from biomass projects by 12 other states during the aforesaid period in Megawatts is as follows- Andhra Pradesh ( 288), Gujarat ( 30.50), Haryana ( 13.50), Karnataka ( 107.50), Madhya Pradesh (26), Maharshtra ( 198), Odisha ( 20), Punjab ( 68.50), Rajasthan ( 101), Tamil Nadu ( 211.70), Uttar Pradesh ( 54) and West Bengal ( 26).
The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy provides Central Financial Assistance at the rate of Rs 25.00 lakh per Mega Watt in special category States and Rs 20 lakh per Mega Watt for other States with a cap of Rs. 1.50 crore per project.
C’garh produced 527.63 lakh cubic meters of bio-gas from family type bio-gas plants and large bio-gas plants in the entire State during the 11th Five Year Plan period.