On June 30, 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released India’s
first National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) outlining existing and
future policies and programs addressing climate mitigation and adaptation.
The NAPCC consists of several targets on climate change issues
and addresses the urgent and critical concerns of the country through a
directional shift in the development pathway. It outlines measures on climate
change related adaptation and mitigation while simultaneously advancing
development. The Missions form the core of the Plan, representing
multi-pronged, long termed and integrated strategies for achieving goals in the
context of climate change.
Emphasizing the overriding priority of maintaining high economic
growth rates to raise living standards, the plan “identifies measures that
promote our development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for
addressing climate change effectively. The plan identifies eight core “national
missions” running through 2017.
Now government of India has introduced ninth mission
under NAPCC. This new mission is called as National Bio-energy Mission. It is
being developed to push sustainable development of the renewable energy sector.
The Bio Energy Mission will:
1.
Aim at improving energy efficiency in traditional biomass
consuming industries.
2.
Seek to develop a bio-energy city project.
3.
Provide logistics support to biomass processing units.
4.
It will also propose a GIS-based National Biomass Resource Atlas
to map potential biomass regions in the country.
Implementation:
The bio-energy mission will adopt a two-phase approach, spanning
the 12th Plan in Phase 1, and the 13th Plan in Phase 2. There will be an
evaluation of progress and review of capacity in the middle and end of each
Plan. Targets for subsequent phases will be set based on the emerging cost and
technology trends, both domestic and global.
70 % of the countries population
have only limited access to electricity. Presently, India has a total
installed capacity of 3,000 MW of biomass-based power generation. The ministry
of new and renewable energy is targeting to double this capacity during the
12th Plan (2012-17).The ministry has earmarked 3,400 crore for the various
incentive schemes under this mission.(2)
Potential:
Studies sponsored by the Ministry
has estimated surplus biomass availability at about 120 – 150 million metric
tones per annum covering agricultural and forestry residues corresponding to a
potential of about 18,000 MW. Apart from this 5000 MW additional power could be
generated through bagasse based cogeneration in the country’s 550 Sugar mills. (3)Each MW generated from biomass plants would be able to cover
about 6,000 rural households.
Advantages of Bio – Mass:
Biomass is derived from agriculture, animal and human waste. It
can be harnessed to produce fuel, power and heat. Biomass has the potential to
address the nation’s energy, environmental, and economic needs simultaneously.
Increased use of biomass for energy would lead to reduced greenhouse gas
emissions. It is renewable, widely available, carbon-neutral and has the
potential to provide significant employment in the rural areas. It is also very
low in sulphur, reducing the production of acid rain.
The National solar mission along with this biomass mission will
certainly increase the renewable mix of energy, which currently India is
looking at positively.
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