India’s Punjab has ‘potential to generate 2GW’ of biomass energy

The state of Punjab in India has the potential to generate 2GW of electrical power from biomass alone, a state secretary says.

According to Anirudh Tewari, principal secretary for industries, commerce, and renewable energy in the Government of Punjab, biomass is an important part of the northern Indian state’s energy market.

“One area of renewable energy which Punjab is concentrating on is biomass", said Tewari as reported by India’s The Economic Times.

"We recently developed 150MW of projects on biomass but we have potential to generate about 2,000MW. That is the kind of biomass available." 

Currently, the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh lead the country’s bioenergy industry in terms of total megawatts of commissioned power and cogeneration projects.

"I would be very happy to interact with the industry which is interested in generating power from biomass," he said. 

"Of course, we are saying that we would buy back all the power and we have made sure that the regulator is now coming out with a tariff order where the variable component of the fuel is also accordingly modulated. 

"We need to diversify. We need to make sure we are not only focusing on wind and solar in Rajasthan. We need to also to look at small hydro in Uttrakhand and Himachal. We need to look at biomass in Punjab and Haryana. That is the kind of mix that we need to develop," Tewari said.