Having already handed over letter of awards to 26 private developers for 250 MW solar power projects, Punjab is now all set to harness bio-mass energy. The state government is planning to invite bids for 300 MW bio-mass power plants to be set up in the state.
It is worth mentioning that till date, the state has harnessed 569 MW in the renewable energy sector, of which 62.5 MW has been set up in in bio-mass power .
Recently, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said that with the availability of abundant agri-residue in the form of paddy straw and cotton stalks, the state has a great potential for setting up of biomass power plants having dual benefit of additional income to farmers, besides preserving the ecology of the state.
Also, the state government has already approached the Indian Iinstitute of Technology Ropar and other technical institutions of the region to develop a viable technology for the usage of paddy straw for generating power or ethanol.
The state government has set a target of generating at least 1000 MW power from the renewable resources of energy like solar, biomass, co-generation, mini-hydel and solar roof tops in next four years.
Further, biomass power generation projects of 600MW and co-generation power project of 500MW were intended to be set up to utilise the agriculture residues. A total of 400MW small/mini/ micro hydel and 50MW of waste-to-energy power projects have been planned to be set up under New and Renewable Sources of Energy (NRSE) policy 2012.
The fiscal and financial incentives were being provided by the state under the NRSE policy to encourage private sector participation.
