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M.R. Subramani

Coonoor, Sept 8 The Tea Board has embarked on a four-year project to help plantations conserve energy and cut energy consumption costs by at least 20 per cent.

The four-year project, which began in March this year, has been launched in South India and targets to cut the emission of carbon di-oxide by at least 1.5 lakh tonnes every year.

Tea estates in the South, numbering about 1.2 lakh, emit 7.5 lakh tonnes of carbon di-oxide every year.

The Tea Board has been able to convince Carbon Credit Fund, Switzerland on selling the credits accrued through the project to developed countries, which must reduce emission of greenhouse gases by 2012.

“Initially, we thought the tea industry does not quality for carbon credits. But we found out that we met the criteria for this and soon, the credit agencies will begin evaluating our project,” Mr R.D. Nazeem, Executive Director of the Tea Board, said during a ‘Technical Session’ on commodities at the United Planters’ Association of Southern India’s 115th annual conference.

“If we get the credit approval, then planters can make more money selling these rather than by saving electricity,” he said.

The project has been able to make simple changes in the ways tea factories and units operate and thus help them save energy costs. For example, it was found that some of the units stocked wood for burning in the open.

The Tea Board recommended construction of shed and it has helped to cut the use of firewood by half. “Keeping in the open left the firewood with higher moisture content and therefore, when just one kg of wood had to be burnt, two kg were used,” Mr Nazeem said.

Nearly 97,500 tonnes of wood are consumed to produce ‘made tea’ with average cost of wood being Rs 2,525 a tonne. It takes 1.45 kg of wood to produced 1 kg of ‘made tea’. Under the project, energy audits are conducted and the energy efficiencies of each tea factory is assessed. Then, opportunities for carbon financing are assessed and solar energy is used to reduce wood consumption.

Till now, the project has found out that 38,060 kWh of electricity can be saved resulting in annual savings of Rs 1.83 lakh and returns on investments made in energy saving methods are got in nine months in the case of firewood and 26 months in the case of saving power.

The UNDP has funded $1 million for this project, while the Tea Board is expected to chip in with a similar amount for this project. So far, 40 tea factories have been covered under the project.

More Stories on : Tea | Power | Agricultural Institutions

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