Fuelled by waste,green plants ignite power-surplus dreams

These mini-plants are environment friendly and use wheat and paddy straw,mustard,cotton and maize sticks,potato bales and poplar waste,to fuel power generation.

Punjab produces nearly 3 crore tonnes of paddy straw,which is mostly burnt by the farmers in the fields leading to pollution and soil fertility loss. It alone has a potential to generate 3,000 MW.

Out of the five that have come up in the Doaba region,one is operational in Hoshiarpur district’s Binjon village and one each at Co-operative Sugar mills in Nawanshahr and Nakodar.

The two other plants are operational at sugar mills in Morinda and Fazilka,sources in the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) said.

The plant in Binjon village has been set up on a 24-acre land taken on lease — Rs 3,69 lak per year — from the panchayat,while the one at the Nakodar has been set up under under public-private partnership (PPP) mode and is being run by a private firm,A2Z Powercom.

The Nakodar-based plant is one of its kind as it can burn several different kinds of fuel (farm aste) simultaneously in its boilers.

In all these areas,hundreds of farmers have already started collecting the farm waste that they can supply to these green plants to supplement their income.

PEDA Director Blour Singh says the bio-mass plants are boon for Punjab as apart from adding to the generation capacity of a power-starved state,it will help save the farms from pollution apart from augmenting farmers’ earnings.

The government agency says in the next few years each plant will be spending up to Rs 40 crore for buying farm waste.

“In next few years,29 such plants will be set up in the state to produce 500 MW power. Each plant is supposed to buy agricultural of Rs 30 to Rs 40 crore worth of farm waste from the farmers who have land in 30-km radius of the plant,” Singh adds.

During peak summer,the power demand in Punjab reaches up to 9,500 MW. However,the state produces only 3,500 MW and imports 5,100 MWs to meet the demand. Three under-construction thermal power plants may take another few years before they start generating power.