The Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) will be setting up four solar-powered cold storages in Dantewada district of Bastar.
The cold storages would be established in Dantewada, Bacheli, Geedam and Katekalyan, officials informed.
The proposed unit should be a solar powered cold storage with thermal storage backup for storage of fresh produce –fruits, vegetables and flowers specifically.
The Chhattisgarh government in 2015-16 had announced that it will promote use of solar photo voltaic power plants in cold storages in a bid to conserve huge quantum of energy consumed by such facilities in the State.
The solar power plant having 50 Kw minimum capacity would be installed in a cold storage in the State meant for storing fruits, vegetables and flowers, it had mentioned.
The cold storage would also be connected to a ‘remote monitoring’ mechanism and the data would be viewable in a desktop or even smart phones, it had informed.
State Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal in January this year had stated that a master plan had been prepared to provide subsidy for opening of cold storages by farmers.
State Agriculture Department, Horticulture Department and Indira Gandhi Agriculture University had been working in close co-ordination to improve the lot of farmers, Agrawal said.
Notably, the cold chain capacity created by the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries in Chhattisgarh stood at 8500 metric tonnes (MT) till April 2015, officials stated.
In a power point presentation on Prospects of Cold Chain Infrastructure in Eastern Region on April 6, 2015, the Ministry has spelled out its plans of taking up a total of 500 Integrated Cold Chain projects as per the modified pattern of the Central assistance during the next five years across the country to create capacity of 2.5 million tonnes .
The core objective of the projects is to make the scheme of cold chain value addition and preservation infrastructure open ended, it stated.
Incidentally, on August 31, 2016 , Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh had directed officials to draw an action plan for operating a State-level ‘Food Processing Mission’ in the State.
Chairing a meeting of the State Industry Department at the office in his residence in Raipur, the Chief Minister said that as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, the State would run the ‘Food Processing Mission’ while using its own resources.
He said that the State government has made a provision of Rs 12 crore for launching the State-level ‘Food Processing Mission’.
Singh said that the launching of Mission would help farmers get better prices for their farm produce and also open new job avenues for youth in the Food Processing sector.
Officials attending the meeting said that Food Processing Sector in Chhattisgarh is being seen as a ‘focus sector’ to ensure industrial diversity.
The cold chain capacity created by the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries in Chhattisgarh stood at 8500 metric tonnes (MT) till April 2015, officials stated.
In a power point presentation on Prospects of Cold Chain Infrastructure in Eastern Region on April 6, 2015, the Ministry has spelled out its plans of taking up a total of 500 Integrated Cold Chain projects as per the modified pattern of the Central assistance during the next five years across the country to create capacity of 2.5 million tonnes .
Chhattisgarh has targetted solar power capacity addition in the range of 500 to 1000 MW by March 2017 as per the State’s Solar Energy Policy 2012, the Union Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh government is also planning to add 2640 MW of additional renewable energy capacity by financial year 2018-19, officials informed.
The State currently has total renewable energy potential of 4,500 MW which includes solar (grid connected and roof top), wind biomass and small hydro.
It has also planned to install solar powered pump sets for agriculture consumers which will benefit 16,000 consumers.
It may be recalled that there are significantly more number of villages which are to be electrified in Chhattisgarh using the off-grid (solar) mode than the grid-based (conventional power supply.
The State will soon also launch a ‘Solar Community Irrigation Project’ for drawing water extracted using solar pumps for supplying to the agricultural land of farmers across the State.
The Central government has released Rs 12 lakh each for Raipur and Bilaspur for the Solar City project, officials informed.
The total sanctioned funds for the two cities is Rs 43 lakh each.
A total amount of Rs 67.01 crore has been sanctioned for preparation of master plans, solar city cells, promotional activities and installation of renewable energy projects and an amount of Rs 24.16 crore has been released, so far, under Solar City Programme.
Out of 7 identified solar cities in Maharashtra, an amount of Rs 7.74 crore has been sanctioned and an amount of Rs 3.04 crore has been released for 6 solar cities.
Notably , Chhattisgarh will procure additional power from renewable energy sources to the tune of approximately 700 MW by FY 2018, officials informed.
With this the average power purchase cost for Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) based on the above power availability will increase from 2.58 Rs/kWh in FY 2015-16 to 3.12 Rs/kWh in FY 2018, they informed.
The rates have been derived based on cost of power at existing rates and considering no escalation in power purchase cost since it is passing through for the distribution company.
Chhattisgarh has two ‘waste-to-energy’ power plants proposed with a total installed capacity of 10 MW, officials informed.
Notably, five Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) to energy plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 66.5 MW are currently operational/under trial run in the country.
The Chhattisgarh government has decided to set up a ‘Waste to Energy’ power generation plant in Durg district.
The Government intends to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) administration for jointly taking up the project, officials informed.
The project is proposed to be undertaken under ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyan’ under the Government’s solid waste management project.
The proposed ‘Waste to Energy’ plant would utilise waste generated from municipal corporations of Bhilai, Durg, Bhilai-Charoda, two municipal councils mainly Jamul and Kumhari and three Nagar Panchayats mainly Utai, Patan and Gunderdehi.
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 is among the leading States for implementing bio-mass power projects such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, according to Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
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.
Chhattisgarh 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.
The estimated State-wise production of bio-gas from family type bio-gas plants and large biogas plants installed in the country under different programmes of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) during the 11th Five Year Plan period is as follows (in lakh cubic metres)- Andhra Pradesh (9969.60), Assam(1616.33) Bihar (2325.94) Goa (71.83) Gujarat (8731.94) Haryana (1112.13) Himachal Pradesh (842.47) Jammu & Kashmir (47.44) Jharkhand (107.19) Karnataka (8213.62) Kerala (2399.30) Madhya Pradesh (5713.25) Maharashtra(15297.74) Manipur (38.80) Meghalaya (146.30) Mizoram (72.40) Nagaland (95.83) Odisha (4402.65) Punjab (2966.70) Rajasthan (1235.30) Sikkim (144.66) Tamil Nadu (5261.66) Tripura (53.25 )Uttar Pradesh(7765.80) Uttarakhand (531.37) West Bengal (6213.70).
About 6.10 lakh family type bio-gas plants were installed during the 11th Five Year Plan against a target of 6.47 lakh plants under the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme.
The data available with the Ministry pointed out that the States which have taken leadership position in implementation of bagasse co-generation projects are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
The Ministry has been implementing biomass power/co-generation programme since mid nineties. A total of 288 biomass power and cogeneration projects aggregating to 2665 MW capacity have been installed in the country for feeding power to the grid consisting of 130 biomass power projects aggregating to 999.0 MW and 158 bagasse cogeneration projects in sugar mills with surplus capacity aggregating to 1666.0 MW.
In addition, around 30 biomass power projects aggregating to about 350 MW are under various stages of implementation.Around 70 Cogeneration projects are under implementation with surplus capacity aggregating to 800 MW..