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L.N. Revathy

COIMBATORE, July 26

TWO demonstration models for generation of power from sago waste and poultry droppings are to be commissioned within the next couple of months.

The pilot project for generation of power from the sago industry waste is expected to go on stream by the end of August in Dharmapuri district, while the project for harnessing power from poultry droppings is set to take off three months later in the Namakkal poultry belt.

The projects, sponsored by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) and coordinated by the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) are aimed at controlling the environmental pollution.

Talking to presspersons, the Chairman and Managing Director of TEDA, Mr K. Alaudin, said the generating capacity of each plant would be 2 MW and the project cost estimated for each plant is Rs 5 crore.

"Since these are demonstration models, MNES has extended a 50 per cent subsidy," he said.

Mr Alaudin expressed the hope that the model projects would set the trend for the rest of the units to follow suit, in efficient utilisation of the waste and in the process, in controlling environmental pollution. He pointed out that the energy fuel sector would counter formidable challenges in the years to come due to the rising demand for power and the estimated shortfall of 21 per cent between peak demand and supply.

According to projections, the energy consumption in developing countries would increase from 30 per cent at present to 50 per cent by 2020. "The need of the hour is to embark on a two-pronged strategy — one, by improving the efficiency of fuel and two, by increasing the use of renewable energy sources. We have considerable potential to develop renewable and alternative energy sources with locally available material or resources, which will be environment friendly," he added.

Stating that Tamil Nadu was ahead of other States in reaching the 2010 target of 10 per cent grid power from renewable sources compared to the all-India average of 3 per cent, he said the State was now aiming to double this within the next couple of years. "It is a daunting task," he said.

Reverting to mixing of ethanol (from molasses) with petrol, he said "we are running behind schedule.

Though the Government of India had made a policy announcement in this regard, the industry is awaiting for the notification, since the Ministry of Finance had announced some concession. We hope that this would take off before the end of the current fiscal."

He pointed out that the distilleries were working at only 50 per cent of their installed capacity because of the poor off-take for rectified spirit.

The alterative sources of use of the spirit, would enhance the utilisation levels, as it was believed that for agro-based developing countries like India, ethanol would be a strong `alternative candidate fuel'.

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