In a major tariff shock to residential consumers of Tata Power in the city, the state electricity regulatory commission on Friday approved a 25% increase in tariff for the year FY14.

Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has approved an average increase in tariff to Rs5.26 from the existing Rs4.19 for FY14 for residential consumers, which will be effective from 1 July.

Tata Power is one of the three power distribution companies in Mumbai, the other two being BEST and Reliance Infra. All of them have to get their power tariffs approved from the regulatory commission.

The commission has approved the multi-year tariff plan till 2016 of Tata Power and allowed an increase of 25% for FY14, 15% for FY15 and 11% for FY16 for residential consumers. For FY15, the average tariff for residential consumers has been increased to Rs6.07 while for FY16, the commission has approved an increase in tariff to Rs6.74. Tata Power had proposed an increase of Rs6.44 for 2014-15 and Rs7.02 for FY16.

According to the new tariff plan for FY14, consumers in the below poverty line category will have to pay 10 paise per unit, while the tariff for 0-100 units has been fixed at 26 paise, 101-300 units at Rs1.85 and for those consuming above 500 units, the tariff has been fixed at Rs5.91. The wheeling charges for all the categories has been fixed at Rs1.87 per unit.

For FY15, the tariff will be revised to 41 paise for those consuming below 100 units, Rs2.05 for up to 300 units, Rs5.23 up to 500 units and Rs7.01 for those consuming above 500 units. The wheeling charges for all the consumer categories will be Rs2.08 per unit.

MERC has, for the year 2015-16, increased the tariff for BPL consumers to 47 paise. For those consuming below 100 units will have to pay 81 paise per unit, while the tariff for up to 300 units has been revised to Rs2.75, Rs6.38 for up to 500 units and Rs8.46 for above 500 units. The wheeling charges for the year has been fixed at 1.81 per unit.

The commission has also revised tariff for low tension commercial as well as high tension consumers for the period. The impact of cross subsidy surcharge for consumers migrating from Reliance Infra network to Tata Power is, however, not clear in the tariff order.

SUMMARY ON NEW CLIMATE PLAN OF UNITED STATES 2013

The US government has implanted various policies and plans and has now taken a step forward in climate change. The plan comprises of various changes in different organization, private and governmental bodies. It consists of three main topics of consideration. One is to cut the carbon emission, to prepare the nation for future climatic changes and perils and the last is to contribute in improving the world climate.

The various changes and the major zones and areas where the plan is expecting to make changes are like cutting the carbon throughout the industries by imposing stricter and federal cut off limit. The government is hoping to accelerate the process of permissions for renewable energy development and expansion of grids. Also the use of advanced fossil fuels will help them cope with carbon emission.  As the emission from heavy duty vehicles is second largest the government is hoping to increase fuel economy standards and develop advance transportation technology. Government has also mention the importance of increasing the end users efficiency, commercial and industrial buildings, research in increasing their efficiency and involving and assisting the private organizations for same.

The main greenhouse gases like methane, HFC are expected to be reduced with the help of environmental protection organization, agriculture department and establishing strategies and technologies for the same, increasing the forest. Federal government will lead in clean energy and energy efficiency.

The US government has drawn importance to climate resilient investments. It has aimed to curb the difficulties, provide technical assistance grants and other programs in sectors of transportation water management and disaster relief. It has aimed to help the local communities, tribal with the help of local agencies. The Task Force and federal agencies are also piloting new ways to support resilience in the Sandy-affected region. The Department of Energy will soon release an assessment of climate-change impacts on the energy sector, including power-plant disruptions due to drought and the disruption of fuel supplies during severe storms, as well as potential opportunities to make our energy infrastructure more resilient to these risks. The Department of Health and Human Services will launch an effort to create sustainable and resilient hospitals in the face of climate change. Promoting insurance leadership for climate safety, conserving the land and water, agro sustainability, draught management, preparations for future floods.

The Administration will continue to lead in advancing the science of climate measurement and adaptation and the development of tools for climate-relevant decision-making by focusing on increasing the availability, accessibility, and utility of relevant scientific tools and information. Government has also mentioned to increase the speed and data gathering on climatic conditions, providing the tool kit for climate resilience, assessment of impacts.

The US govt. is also working intensively to forge global responses to climate change through a number of important international negotiations, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, enhancing multilateral engagement with major economies, expanding bilateral cooperation with major emerging economies through initiatives like the US-china clean energy research center, the US-India partnership to advance clean energy. It is also leading through the global methane initiative, which works with 42 partners countries. Negotiating global free trade in environmental goods and services, phasing out subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption of fossil fuels, leading global sector public financing towards cleaner energy, strengthening global resilience to climate change, mobilizing climate finance. At international level the US govt. has taken active participation at global climate events such as Copenhagen Conference, UNFCCC, Montreal Protocol, Kyoto Protocol, Climate meeting in Durban etc.

Thus the new policy on climatic changes is an example for all the other countries and shows the love of the United States for its flora and fauna, people and the world. All the other country must get inspiration from this revolutionary changes that us govt. is about to make and must participate in the same.

Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty that sets binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC is an environmental treaty with the goal of preventing "dangerous" anthropogenic (i.e., human-induced) interference of the climate system. There are 192 parties to the convention, including 191 states (all UN members, except Andorra, Canada, South Sudan and the United States) and the European Union. The United States signed but did not ratify the Protocol and Canada withdrew from it in 2011. The Protocol was adopted by Parties to the UNFCCC in 1997, and entered into force in 2005.

As part of the Kyoto Protocol, many developed countries have agreed to legally binding limitations/reductions in their emissions of greenhouse gases in two commitments periods. The first commitment period applies to emissions between 2008-2012, and the second commitment period applies to emissions between 2013-2020. The protocol was amended in 2012 to accommodate the second commitment period, but this amendment has (as of January 2013) not entered into legal force.

The 37 countries with binding targets in the second commitment period are Australia, all members of the European Union, Belarus, Croatia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Switzerland, and Ukraine. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets. Japan, New Zealand, and Russia have participated in Kyoto's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period. Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada (which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012) and the United States (which has not ratified the Protocol).

International emissions trading allows developed countries to trade their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.They can trade emissions quotas among themselves, and can also receive credit for financing emissions reductions in developing countries. Developed countries may use emissions trading until late 2014 or 2015 to meet their first-round targets.

Developing countries do not have binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol, but are still committed under the treaty to reduce their emissions. Actions taken by developed and developing countries to reduce emissions include support for renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, and reducing deforestation. Under the Protocol, emissions of developing countries are allowed to grow in accordance with their development needs.

The treaty recognizes that developed countries have contributed the most to the anthropogenic build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (around 77% of emissions between 1750 and 2004), and that carbon dioxide emissions per person in developing countries (2.9 tonnes in 2010) are, on average, lower than emissions per person in developed countries (10.4 tonnes in 2010).

A number of developed countries have commented that the Kyoto targets only apply to a small share of annual global emissions. Countries with second-round Kyoto targets made up 13.4% of annual global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2010. Many developing countries have emphasized the need for developed countries to have strong, binding emissions targets. At the global scale, existing policies appear to be too weak to prevent global warming exceeding 2 or 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to the pre-industrial level.

sustainable energy

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are said to be the twin pillars of sustainable energy. Some ways in which sustainable energy has been defined are:

• "Effectively, the provision of energy such that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. ...Sustainable Energy has two key components: renewable energy and energy efficiency." – Renewable Energy and Efficiency Partnership (British)
• "Dynamic harmony between equitable availability of energy-intensive goods and services to all people and the preservation of the earth for future generations." And, "the solution will lie in finding sustainable energy sources and more efficient means of converting and utilizing energy." – Sustainable energy by J. W. Tester, et al., from MIT Press.
• "Any energy generation, efficiency & conservation source where: Resources are available to enable massive scaling to become a significant portion of energy generation, long term, preferably 100 years.." – Invest, a green technology non-profit organization.
• "Energy which is replenishable within a human lifetime and causes no long-term damage to the environment." – Jamaica Sustainable Development Network

This sets sustainable energy apart from other renewable energy terminology such as alternative energy and green energy, by focusing on the ability of an energy source to continue providing energy. Sustainable energy can produce some pollution of the environment, as long as it is not sufficient to prohibit heavy use of the source for an indefinite amount of time. Sustainable energy is also distinct from low-carbon energy, which is sustainable only in the sense that it does not add to the CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Green Energy is energy that can be extracted, generated, and/or consumed without any significant negative impact to the environment. The planet has a natural capability to recover which means pollution that does not go beyond that capability can still be termed green.

Green power is a subset of renewable energy and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Customers often buy green power for avoided environmental impacts and its greenhouse gas reduction benefits.

what is solar energy????

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar energy technologies include solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal electricity,solar architecture and artificial photosynthesis, which can make considerable contributions to solving some of the most urgent energy problems the world now faces.

Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute solar energy. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic panels and solar thermalcollectors to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.

In 2011, the International Energy Agency said that "the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits. It will increase countries’ energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigatingclimate change, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise. These advantages are global. Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared"

THE URJA GYAN FOUNDATION

What is Urja Gyan?

UrjaGyan is an NGO initiative by the Urja Gyan Foundation based in Mumbai. As the name suggests, this website was conceptualized keeping in mind the growing need to create awareness and assimilate information on the dynamic field of Energy in India. The website, then, functions to bring together the diversity of knowledge available on energy sources-- Electricity, Oil and Natural gas, Coal, Nuclear, Renewable Energy. Along with facts, the website also seeks to capture the phenomenon of energy as it changes in the industry. Thus, it covers current news, updates on regulations and amendments and other knowledge driven services within the field.

Our people

Urja Gyan foundation generally comprises of a team of young people under the guidance of veteran power consultant Dr Radhakrishna Deshraju. More information on these people are as follow.

Mr Radhakrishna Deshraju

Dr. Radhakrishna with Educational background in Engineering , Law and Management Degrees from reputed institutions has worked at MP State Electricity Board for 15 years and Adani Exports Ltd , Ahmadabad is now giving consultancy in entire Energy Management encompassing a circle of experienced persons and youngsters for the mix up the activities with enthusiasm . He is  chairman of Deeaar group and Urja Gyan foundation. 

Kunal Khatri  

Kunal is a 23 years old dedicated employee at Deeaar power consulting group and is one of the core team member of the Urja Gyan foundation. He has nearly 2 years of experience in power sector. He is a bachelor of Technology in computer science and an administrator of Urja Gyan website. 

Chandan Kumar Deo

Chandan is a 28 year old full time employee at Deeaar group . He has completed his degree of bachelor of Technology in Information Technology from NIT Bhopal. After having an experience of  nearly 2 years, he has joined the force of Urja Gyan foundation. 

Parth Chaudhary (intern)

Parth is 19 year old  intern at Deeaar group and Urja Gyan foundation. he is currently a second year student at IIT Bombay. He is working in load management and is a blogger for Urja Gyan.

Sandeep Chittaluri (intern)

Sandeep is 20 year old intern at Deear group Urja Gyan. He is currently second year student at IIT Bombay. He is working in renewable energy tariff determination.

Village energy security In India

                                                      

                             India is moving towards development at an emphatic pace. But in this inevitable process of development the country seems to improve in digits but not all the people enjoys the development. Especially those people who are living in the villages, remote areas do not get equal benefits as do the upper class gets. The most important is the provision of energy be it electricity, gas, kerosene or anything that one expects   from government   at least. Due to the efforts of VESP (Village Energy Security Programme) and RGGVY (Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidhyutikaran Yojana) under the MNRE and MOP many rural areas were enlighten. Coming to data, of 593732 villages in India nearly 94.4% are declared electrified. But there still remain many remote places under darkness.

 

                                        The idea of VESP is to electrify the remote villages by setting up a renewable power plant in locality mostly a biomass plant, SVO etc.  Local equipment and manpower are used in set up of plants and local people are trained and employed to operate them. The fuel for biomass is obtained from locality only. Also many tributaries and rivers are subjected to check dams (small hydro) to generate electricity and recharge the ground water level which is very important from the point of view of irrigation.

But still things are not over yet when it comes to maintenance, or when the remote areas are geographically inert in country map. Difficulties arise in areas inside forest, tribal or islands or hilly regions where even vehicles cannot go. To set up plant or extend wires becomes unviable mentally physically and financially given the budget constraints. MNRE and VESP are still tackling the situations. Looking briefly into technical issues the load factor are lesser then expectation due to unavailability of fuel, biomass, inadequate training, low uptimes, maintenance, breakdowns etc.  Financially there is always a viability gap making them dependent on subsidy.

                                       Due to such vivid experience from one place to other, The VESP is gaining more maturity in the process which is improving its efficiency, work-rate, methodology, liquidity of subsidies. So the Programme and the government are making their sincere efforts in raising the rural. But the real solution is attached to every citizen of the country. Due to increasing demand of urban people and their willing-ness to pay has increased their share of electricity. The per capita use of electricity of India is 879.22 kWh and it is increasing and there is a huge gap between the rural and urban community. People are exploiting the resources and making the poor deprived of the same. Due to this there is lot of power-cuts in most states of nation and generally backward areas are at receiving end.  Also the illiteracy is keeping them down in darkness.

                                        So overall the combine efforts can only lit the whole nation.        

       

History of energy- A brief introduction.

The word energy derives from the Greek ἐνέργεια energeia, which possibly appears for the first time in the work of Aristotle in the 4th century BCE. (Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια energeia "activity, operation")

The concept of energy emerged out of the idea of vis viva (living force), which Gottfried Leibniz defined as the product of the mass of an object and its velocity squared; he believed that total vis viva was conserved. To account for slowing due to friction, Leibniz theorized that thermal energy consisted of the random motion of the constituent parts of matter, a view shared by Isaac Newton, although it would be more than a century until this was generally accepted.

In 1807, Thomas Young was possibly the first to use the term "energy" instead of vis viva, in its modern sense. Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis described "kinetic energy" in 1829 in its modern sense, and in 1853,William Rankine coined the term "potential energy".

The law of conservation of energy, was first postulated in the early 19th century, and applies to any isolated system. According to Noether's theorem, the conservation of energy is a consequence of the fact that the laws of physics do not change over time. Since 1918 it has been known that the law of conservation of energy is the direct mathematical consequence of the translational symmetry of the quantity conjugate to energy, namely time.

It was argued for some years whether energy was a substance (the caloric) or merely a physical quantity, such as momentum. In 1845 James Prescott Joule discovered the link between mechanical work and the generation of heat. This led to the theory of conservation of energy, and development of the first law of thermodynamics.

Finally, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) amalgamated these many discoveries into the laws of thermodynamics, which aided the rapid development of explanations of chemical processes by Rudolf Clausius,Josiah Willard Gibbs, and Walther Nernst. It also led to a mathematical formulation of the concept of entropy by Clausius and to the introduction of laws of radiant energy by Jožef Stefan.

                                                              Richard  Feynman

During a 1961 lecture for undergraduate students at the California Institute of Technology, Richard Feynman, a celebrated physics teacher and Nobel Laureate, said this about the concept of energy:

There is a fact, or if you wish, a law, governing all natural phenomena that are known to date. There is no known exception to this law—it is exact so far as we know. The law is called the conservation of energy. It states that there is a certain quantity, which we call energy, that does not change in manifold changes which nature undergoes. That is a most abstract idea, because it is a mathematical principle; it says that there is a numerical quantity which does not change when something happens. It is not a description of a mechanism, or anything concrete; it is just a strange fact that we can calculate some number and when we finish watching nature go through her tricks and calculate the number again, it is the same.

—The Feynman Lectures on Physics

DEFINE- ENERGY

Let us try defining the word energy which has everything in it and probably the universe is explained within it.Every thing we do and whatever we see is the transformation , creation, use of energy. We are surrounded by energy to it is very interesting topic and yes everyone mush know that what is energy???

In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity which comes in many forms, such as kinetic energy, potential energy, radiant energy, and many others; which are listed in this summary article. This is a major topic in science and technology and this article gives an overview of its major aspects, and provides links to the many specific articles about energy in its different forms and contexts.

The question "what is energy?" is difficult to answer in a simple, intuitive way, although energy can be rigorously defined in theoretical physics. In the words of Richard Feynman, "It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge what energy is. We do not have a picture that energy comes in little blobs of a definite amount."

However, it is clear that energy is always an indispensable prerequisite for performing mechanical work, and the concept has great importance in natural science. The natural basic units in which energy is measured are those used for mechanical work—the joule—which is equivalent to a unit of force multiplied by a unit of length. Other equivalent units for energy are mass units multiplied by velocity units squared.

Failures of poor biomass development, operation, scheduling, implementation etc are as follow

Reasons of failures

¢  Sources of fuel are not authenticated and the fuel is stored by the agents for a price rise

¢  Procurement and storage losses from biomass storage are around 5%

¢  Competition – Increasing competition from other  sectors like brick kilns, cement plants, thermal power plants, oil mills, and rice mills making biomass unviable for power production alone

¢  Price of the biomass fluctuates very highly from Rs.1,500 / ton during season to Rs. 3,000 / ton during off season of crops

¢  Rise of fuel prices, assessment, procurement, storage practices are assessed directly by visiting the biomass power plants

¢  Skilled manpower procurement and retention is another problem faced by the biomass power producers

¢  There are no skilled workers in the area and as the number of power plants are increasing the need for skilled manpower is increasing day-by-day leading to lower retention rates at different biomass power plants

¢  Problems pertaining to the delayed payments from the DICOMS

¢  Tripping of the power lines 

¢  The major barriers and constraints that were identified are:

—  

Technical barriers

—  Institutional / regulatory barriers

—  Financial barriers

—  Technical Barriers

¢  Lack of quality biomass assessment study

¢  Lack of standardized methodologies and guidance

¢  Biomass assessment a low cost service

¢  Inadequate fuel collection, distribution and supply mechanism

¢  Competition for biomass and price rise

¢  Availability, training and retention of  skilled manpower

¢  Lack of standardized SHR and GCV rates

   

                       Institutional / Regulatory barriers and constraints

—  

 Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)

¢  Lack of short term PPAs with Biomass Power Plants

—  Tariff related issues

¢  Lack of standard biomass price assessment mechanism for determination of the biomass tariffs

—  Zoning of the region

¢  Irregular zoning practices and self violating policies

—  Sizing of the power plant

¢  Improper sizing of the power plant leading to competition for the same amount of biomass available

  

    Financial barriers and constraints

—  Lack of interest from financing institutions

—  Delayed bill payments by more than six months

DISTRIBUTION REFORMS – SOCIAL or BUSINESS PRACTICE

One of the pertinent questions to ask while developing power reform is whether the present setup of distribution which aims to provide every household in the country with electricity needs to revamp its technical, social or the business domain. Currently, there are about 80 distributors most of which are state owned barring a few private, co-operative societies and PPP models.  

As per EA 2003 , all network below 66 K which is maintained for retail sale to a population of 20 crore consumers from the distribution network i.e. Industrial, residential, commercial and agricultural sectors make use of generators to fulfil their power requirements. The transfer of energy whether it is thermal, nuclear,gas, hydel or renewable is done through transmitters with energy as high as 765 kV. To ensure smooth operation the model employs power management planning division as well as system operators.  

The Act has already shown its effects on the power consumption market. EA 2003 has precipitated energy levels from 78,000 Mw to the current 2.50 lakh Mw. This has also resulted in a per capita increase in consumption from 250 Kw to 1000 Kw while increasing general supply from 6 hours to almost 24 hours a day. What then remains cause of concern for the industry? The inherent technical issues such as resistance of electron in iron wires and transformation in copper are coupled with commercial losses mainly as a result of theft, pilferage or poor loaded led to an average loss of 30% in the country with the median variation from 80% in some parts to 12% in urban areas.Further the average country tariff of 380 leads to a loss for the distribution company where average cost of supply is 480. Most of the parties involved such as the power supplier, transmitter and the government are not willing to share this loss. Issues such as increased cost of coal and government barriers on agricultural and residential tariff augment this obstacle to a secure market.  

Aside from these concerns tariff is a major part of a healthy electrical market. Currently in the country, tariff policy determines that tariffs and cost of supply should not vary by more than 20%. Yet the tariff from the regulator’s side has not applied this rule in their costs and cross subsidy remains as high as Rs. 2.  Open market policies have also not shown any improvement due to faulty policy making. One of the major blocks is that consumers are required to buy in Mw ( 1000 Kwh) which they can use in multiples of Kwh, this makes it impossible to bear losses and thus the proposition of marketing power remains a mockery. Tariff categorization is another issue in tariff policies that needs revisiting. At the time, tariff is subcategorized by voltage and consumption levels with some states like Andhra having 80 categories and most other states,40 categories.With all these concerns the most apt way of dealing with the situation would be to firstly, set energy charge categorization according to voltage and irrespective of use. Furthermore, an opening of the market to consumer choice would be the most liberal and efficient way of bring power to consumers. In order to do so, we must also explore how power is sold on the open market now. While NTPC can provide power for a  charge of 1.25 Rs whereas Tata is unable to supply for even Rs. 5.50. This is mainly due to fuel costs which can vary from Rs 700 to Rs 7000 per Mt of coal with quality of  4200-5500 Kcal.The market then must be revamped at the level of policy through a comparison of generation costs between private and public sectors instead of levying heavy tariff and needless categorization of consumer requirements by type. 

The Indian biomass industry has suffered from a number of inherent risks

1.      Non-availability of feedstock within a certain radius

2.      Cartelization of feedstock, waste and otherwise leading to price instability

3.      Unorganized market without long term supply contracts being possible

4.      Greed of farmers and developers alike

5.      Inadequate awareness of the impact on the environment due to burning

6.      Poor technology availability with efficiency rates of power plants at just 20-25% – 9000 Metric tons (equivalent to 6000 midsized cars) of biomass is required to annually generate 1MW

7.      Large scale plantation management, biomass plant technology and supply chain expertise is lacking in general

8.      Open access is restricted in a large number of states or is an onerous process, preventing third party sales

9.      Power rates are insufficient to match the increasing costs of feedstock, transportation and storage

10.  Payment issues with monopolistic State Electricity Boards

11.  Insurance doesn’t cover feedstock risk

12.  Seasonality of feedstock availability and crop failures

13.  Poor supply chain management

14.  Grid availability, tail end consumptions are limited

15.  Uncertainty of carbon credits CDMs post 2012

Biomass-based power shows many potential benefits

                                                         

·         Distributed generation – Because biomass is available in almost all places, and especially in rural areas, and more important, as gasification based power production can be done on small scales (as low as 20 kW), this process can be used for distributed generation of power as against the centralized power production method followed today.

·         Base load power – Many renewable energy sources such as solar and wind cannot be used for base load power generation due to their intermittency and variability. Biomass based power generation, on the other hand, can be used for base load power generation.

·         Suited for rural areas – Biomass based power is well suited to remote villages with no access to grid but access to significant amounts of biomass

·         Ability to have small, kW scale power production – Biomass gasification based power production can be done at small scales – as small as 20 kW – unlike other sources of power (say, nuclear) that require much larger scales. This will ideally suit small villages that have only a few households.

·         Rural economic upliftment - Also the possibility of increasing the prosperity of rural areas especially if dedicated energy crops become common for biomass based power production – Currently, most biomass based power production uses waste biomass such as agro waste and waste from agro processing units. However a trend is emerging in which companies are exploring the use of dedicated energy crops for biomass power production. This has the twin benefits of a more reliable biomass supply chain and at the same time providing the much needed employment for the rural masses. Given that a 1 MW biomass based power generation could require biomass growth in over 150 hectares, the opportunities for rural employment are indeed significant.

·         Carbon neutral - Biomass power results in no new net GHG emissions as it is part of the carbon cycle. Unlike coal and other forms of fossil fuel which have been buried millions of years ago and burning them adds to carbon in the atmosphere, whereas biomass energy generation results in no new carbon emission or pollution

 

·         Efficient utilization of renewable biological sources - Biomass power is an efficient process which results in the use of mostly animal and crop wastes which would be converted into carbon dioxide anyway.

·         Large variety of feedstock – Biomass power can use a large variety of feedstock such as wood pellets, rice husk, bagasse etc.

·         Reduces methane, a major GHG gas – Decomposition of organic matter releases methane. Capturing this methane yields energy while protecting the atmosphere. The animal industry and landfills produce significant amounts of methane.

·         Low Cost Resource – Biomass power can be produced economically, at costs competitive to grid power, if there is a good availability of feedstock.